Confessions Of An It Manager

Phil Factor is a legend in his own runtime. Scurrilous, absurd, confessional and scathing by turns, Confessions of an IT Manager targets the idiocy, incompetence and overreach of the IT management industry from vantage point all the way up and down the greasy pole. Phil Factor (real name witheld to protest the guilty) has over 20 years experience in the IT industry, specializing in database-intensive applications. For withering insight into the human weaknesses and farcical levels of ineptitude that bring IT projects to their knees, plus occasional escapes into burnished pastiche and cock-a-leg doggerel there is no funnier, more illuminating commentary on the IT crowd.

"A guide to corporate success reveals the author's own story of success through numerous tales and anecdotes and illustrates such points of management as attitude, diplomacy, leadership, and motivation."--Publisher's description.

“Diary of a Very Bad Year is a rarity: a book on modern finance that’s both extraordinarily thoughtful and enormously entertaining.” — James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds “A great read. . . . HFM offers a brilliant financial professional’s view of the economic situation in real time, from September 2007, when problems in financial markets began to surface, until late summer 2009.” — Booklist “n+1 is the rightful heir to Partisan Review and the New York Review of Books. It is rigorous, curious and provocative.” — Malcolm Gladwell A profoundly candid and captivating account of the economic crisis and subprime mortgage collapse, from an anonymous hedge fund manager, as told to the editors of New York literary magazine n+1.

If someone said to you, 'Imagine a tour manager for a rock band,' what would you think?Now take that thought and turn it completely on its head.That's Kim.In this, my first book, Confessions of a Female Tour Manager, I tell the story of my life on the road with some of the most notorious bands in rock 'n' roll history, including Chumbawamba, Hawkwind, Black Sabbath - and for the ten craziest years of my life, Motörhead.Mine is the story of a woman in a man's world. I had no interest in being one of the boys, let alone proving it. I wore designer shoes instead of steel toe-caps, freshly-painted nail varnish instead of tattoos and carried a Tiffany pen instead of an Allen key in my pocket. In thirty years, I never ran, never shouted, never gave in and never gave up. This is a memoir with a triple-A pass - filled with egos and escapades, divas and decadence, substance abuse and sex; tales of music and madness, of scotching stereotypes, of not giving a damn and deciding what really matters - all to a soundtrack playing at 11.

Law Enforcement, Policing, & Security

The book goes a long way toward raising the profile of the invaluable role enterprise architects play in major software initiatives. For this reason, I have confidence that if organizations take these insights to heart and leverage them effectively, they will begin to deliver consistent, real returns on their IT investments. Will this book make a difference? Time will tell, but my sense is that it very well can.—William M. Ulrich, President at Tactical Strategy Group, Inc. Confessions of an Enterprise Architect is the insider’s track on how to succeed as an enterprise architect despite the politics, budgets, setbacks, personnel issues, and technological challenges. It includes theoretical and pragmatic discussions about the discipline, imparts constructive recommendations born of personal experience, and presents a set of best practices for developing professional-caliber architectures that deliver professional-caliber systems. The book also features numerous ‘"Confessions," which are practical tips, warnings, and guidance from a practicing enterprise architect garnered over a career of independent practice. A sample of confessions includes: Accommodating change is the sole constant in the professional life of an enterprise architect Many enterprise architects don’t appreciate that their decisions not only affect system design but also impact the development environment and influence the structure of project teams In many cases, initial project estimates are so inaccurate that approvers would be better off developing their own assessments In many project teams, the user is the last consideration The insights contained in this book, typified by its "Confessions" and "Pro Tips," offer organizations a way forward with enterprise architecture. This book also explains how enterprise architects can engage senior business leaders as effectively and as fluently as engaging business analysts, developers, business professionals, program managers, and fellow architects. In addition, it demonstrates how to communicate sophisticated, leading-edge concepts in clean, simple ways that facilitate buy-in at every level. Most importantly, the book makes the case that a professional enterprise architect—and, by extension, a professional-caliber enterprise architecture—sets the foundation for continued success in an industry accustomed to failure.