CRC Press

Determining project requirements.

Jonasson explains the business analysis processes of project management that carries a project from the early stages to creation. He gives a broad overview of many business analysis issues and presents tools and techniques to select the best approach for different types of projects. Included is information drawn from a study he conducted with a group of business analysts and project participants who had attended his seminars, exploring the role of the business analyst in different organizations, difficulties in capturing requirements, and tools used in the process. He follows a fictitious project throughout. The book is aimed at business analysts and those in training courses. Jonasson teaches advanced courses and lectures on project management internationally. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Duke's handbook of medicinal herbs of the Bible.

For those who might have wondered about the uses of myrrh, for example, or more common plants such as cumin, mustard seed and mint, Duke, a botanist and ethnobotanist, provides information. He has combed the Bible for references to plants and profiles them here, citing botanical names, common names, and uses both as pharmaceuticals and food sources. While he lists various historical claims for the efficacy of the plant he also evaluates the truth of such claims, from folk myth to tested and proved in controlled scientific studies. Every entry is accompanied by an illustration of the plant. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Effective communications for project management.

For a project to succeed, the project manager must lay the groundwork for ensuring good communication occurs throughout the life cycle of the project. Drawing on 25-plus years of experience in project and program management in the financial and aerospace industries, Kliem (City University, Seattle, Washington) offers managers a practical text on the key elements of effective project communications. Coverage includes the elements of project communications management, establishing the project management information system, personality style and communications, active and effective listening, preparing the communications management plan and establishing an issues management process, drafting and publishing documentation, conducting meetings, giving effective presentations, developing and deploying a website, building a control room, and the key to effective leadership. Distributed in the U.S. by Taylor & Francis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Facility logistics; approaches and solutions to next generation challenges.

Newer approaches to manufacturing have put the elements of logistics under a microscope. Although getting parts, assemblies and finished goods to the right place at the right time has always been important to the efficiency of a firm or industry, now the logistics function can make or break lean operations. These 11 articles focus on the most recent changes in standards of logistics while explaining how to connect warehouse management systems and product flow, how to quickly assess warehouse operations, and how to design facilities and materials handling systems simultaneously. They describe the best use of cross aisles in a rectangular warehouse, stochastic models for facilities logistics, staging protocols for unit-load cross-docking, performance analysis of unit-load automated storage retrieval systems, carousel storage systems, and algebraic deadlock avoidance policies for sequential resource allocation systems. An especially interesting article describes how to teach warehouse concepts through interactive media and three-dimensional models. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Global trafficking in women and children.

Trafficking in women and children affects every nation on earth, and here researchers and activists detail the practice in over 40 countries. They describe the overall scope, practices, causes, possible controls and prevention measures, all of which require alterations in thinking of women and children as anonymous commodities. This introduction is followed by a series of case studies detailing conditions in Japan, China, India, Nigeria, Nepal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Sierra Leone, the UK, the US and Croatia and a survey of training and services in American law enforcement agencies. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Government public relations; a reader.

To those who guffaw that the government and public have no relations, not counting tax day, the contributors of these 25 essays remind them that in fact a good portion of the business of government is to receive information from the citizenry and, in turn, seek to inform it, doing both in such a way as to provide mutual benefit. This reader explains the theory, practices and contexts of government public relations, addressing its purpose in both business and government and the work of practitioners.. They cover media relations, including the continuing battle of the media against the bureaucracy, effective use of agency spokespeople, and the art of spin doctoring, the differences between pubic and popular reporting, the successes of community involvement and individual citizen participation, the marketing element, crisis management, the propaganda element, the Freedom of Information Act, ethical issues, nonprofit organization involvement, and future trends, including e-reporting. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Handbook of military administration.

While the United States military is the largest governmental bureaucracy in the country, the changes in its administration have not been comprehensively studied in several years, according to editors Weber and Eliasson (political science, East Stroudsburg U.) Considering that the Department of Defense administers the military's day-today operations and roughly three million active duty personnel, National Guard and Reserve members, and civilian support personnel, the topic is, at the very least, an important one. The editor/authors and their 16 co-contributors offer a comprehensive reference work on the aspects, effects, and reforms of United States military administration, a thorough examination of legal and historical contexts, organizational structure, professional development, financing and staffing, ethics, and related topics. The volume also explores how traditional allies and China, a rising international power, or modernizing and reorganizing their militaries. It also looks at the use and implications of private security contractors. Chapters include conclusions or summaries and extensive reference listings. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Homeland security handbook.

Pinkowski (H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern U.) presents 22 chapters examining interrelated issues of preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation in dealing with the threat of terrorism, principally focusing on homeland security in the United States. Chapters provide an overview of theoretical and definitional matters of homeland security as a discipline; profile different types of terrorist threats; and discuss such issues as profiling, coordination of healthcare response to terrorist incidents, and knowledge management for safe events. They also include case studies of homeland security preparedness and planning in city governments, Norway's homeland security policies, the effects of the September 11th attacks on cross-border traffic, victim management in the case of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, homeland security administration and finance in Texas county governments, and the economic impact of border closures along the southern border. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Insourcing innovation; how to achieve competitive excellence using TRIZ.

Despite the amount of lip service business gives to innovation, few have a basic understanding of how to get it, and once it is got, how to manage it. The authors, all consultants, believe the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) produces better ideas, helps executives make better research and development decisions, and shortens development times. They describe the inertia currently besetting many US companies, the TRIZ framework business leaders must use to think about achieving business excellence and perpetual innovation with existing resources, the tactical aspects of TRIZ and its primary components, case examples of TRIZ applications, strategic values of TRIZ, which work with primary evolutionary forces, and the ways in which structured innovation impacts business within "total performance excellence." Distributed by Taylor & Francis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Introduction to executive protection, 2d ed.

Former US Secret Service agent June, now a professor of human behavior, criminal justice, and terrorism courses at universities in the Los Angeles area, explores the psychology, philosophy, and professionalism of the field of close personal protection. He draws on his many years of experience in the field to give an overview of conditions that shape a close personal protection program, interspersing material with inspirational quotes, spiritual poetry, and literary references from the West and the East. Coverage includes psychological perspectives on security, medical issues, legal considerations, ethics and conduct, and team building, as well as specific situations such as terrorism, kidnapping, and bomb threats. Learning features include chapter summaries and review questions, a glossary, and preparation checklists. This second edition contains nine new chapters. The audience for the book includes security professionals and students of psychology and organizational behavior. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Land use change; science, policy, and management.

This collection of articles focuses on the dynamics of land use changes, integration and feedback between change system elements, and scale issues in space and time. Following solid reviews of basic and applied land use science and models for decision analysis, contributors offer case studies of integrated data on catchments in Australia, deforestation in Uganda, unplanned cover change in Colombia, tangled thematic v. structural change in Thailand, forest fragmentation and landscapes of colonization in the Amazon Basin, and urban locales in crisis in China. A concluding article provides synthesis, comparative analysis of the case studies, and prospects for more research and applications. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Mastering the rules of competitive startegy; a resource guide for managers.

Running a business strategically has been a hot topic in the last few decades, but most pundits stick close to theory and offer few practical suggestions to practicing managers. In contrast, consultant and trainer Paley builds from the inside out, from basic theory to action, taking the principles of strategic planning into daily operations in a step-by-step process. He advocates studying the market carefully and then shifting to the offensive rather the defensive in countering it, maneuvering first by developing an indirect strategy, building a competitive lead quickly and then growing by developing an ethnographic approach (including mapping a segment, creating a special language, observing "body language" and describing ritual), creating and prioritizing competitive intelligence, aligning strategy with corporate culture, defining the moral fiber that underlies leadership, creating a moral advantage, and strengthening decision-making by fortifying intuition, enhancing business experience and expanding knowledge. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Operational excellence; using lean Six Sigma to translate customer value through global supply chains.

Martin, a Six Sigma consultant, provides operations managers, process improvement specialists, Lean experts, Six Sigma belts, and consultants with tools for analyzing and improving process workflows within the global supply chain. The information is consolidated into 110 key concepts designed to help an organization translate the "voice of the customer" throughout global supply chains. Chapters are in five major sections on adapting strategies for global competitiveness; translating customer value into products and services; operations planning and management; collecting and sharing information across a global supply chain; and global supply chain management integration and control. The book is distributed in the US by Taylor & Francis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The strategic project leader; mastering service-based project leadership

Drawing on his own extensive experience in the field, Ferraro addresses the commodification of project management, and provides advice to project managers regarding what to do about it. In the increasingly global economy, project management, which has been packaged and systematized and codified, is increasingly being traded and bid down; practitioners must find ways to distinguish themselves. Ferraro's contention is that only leadership ability can elevate a PM from the level of one more good to be traded. By emphasizing the leading of people and providing a roadmap for personal development, Ferraro has created an interesting and practical book. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Supply chain risk management; minimizing disruptions in global sourcing.

Handfield and McCormack, both affiliated with North Carolina State University, collect readings from leading academics and practitioners in the field of risk management. These insights shed light on the organizational implications for risk management, the impact of disruptions on supply chains, management models for contingency planning around risk, and analytical models that can be used to derive and challenge current thinking on how to manage risk in supply chains. Case studies involve an automotive supplier for a large North American heavy truck manufacturer, and a large medical devices firm implementing a supply risk management program with a risk portfolio approach. A glossary is included. The book is distributed in the US by Taylor & Francis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Sustaining the military enterprise; an architecture for a lean transformation. (CD-ROM included)

The US Department of Defense has directed that all of its logistics activities of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) be transformed in conformity with commercially proven practices and strategies. In this book, Mathaisel (Babson College) describes a "lean enterprise architecture" for transforming military MRO (also called sustainment) strategies. His proposed Lean Sustainment Enterprise Model calls for the consolidation and integration of in-service engineering, integrated logistic support, intermediate/depot maintenance, operational support, and supply support and is organized around three primary sustainment structures, operation sustainment, sustainment engineering, and MRO operations. After describing the overall enterprise architecture, he discusses continuous process improvement initiatives, best sustainment practices, and transformation implementation. The CD-ROM contains documents and tools useful for the transformation process. Distributed in the US by Taylor & Francis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Theories of geographic concepts; formal ontological approaches to semantic integration.

In order to be able to meaningfully exchange, integrate, and reuse geographic information in an interoperable manner without having to know in advance the meaning of the information will require a much greater understanding of the semantics and ontologies of concepts within geographic information science. In pursuit of the above long- range goal, Kavouras (dean, School of Rural & Surveying Engineering, National Technical U. of Athens, Greece) and Kokla (secretary of the Working Group II/6 — System Integration and Interoperability (2004- 08) of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) focus on the understanding of geographic concepts, the analysis of the semantic dimensions, and the ability to create bodies of geographic knowledge represented by ontologies. In sequence, they discuss the importance of philosophical, cognitive, and formal theories in preserving the semantics of geographic concepts in knowledge representation, ontology development, and integration; lay out the theoretical issues underpinning the discussion; introduce the formal tools and conceptual structures necessary for the realization of ontological structures; discuss ontology integration from the implementation point of view, with approaches, guidelines, cases, and examples; and review the contemporary state of ontological research in geographic information science. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)