BKINVSIT.RVW   961117
 
"Investing in Information Technology", Bill Bysinger/Ken Knight, 1996,
0-442-02337-5, U$29.95
%A   Bill Bysinger
%A   Ken Knight
%C   115 Fifth Ave., New York, NY   10003
%D   1996
%G   0-442-02337-5
%I   Van Nostrand Reinhold (VNR)
%O   U$29.95 +1-800-842-3636, +1-212-254-3232 fax: +1-212-254-9499
%O   aburt-murray@vnr.com kydel@vnr.com http://www.vnr.com/vnr.html
%P   222
%T   "Investing in Information Technology"
 
Sorry, all you venture capitalists can go back to sleep.  What the authors have
tried to do here, is to provide advice on the management of IT.  The operative
word is "tried".
 
The initial emphasis on a slogan of "making it simple" reminded me immediately
of an old editorial in a technical journal entitled "On the Danger of Simple
Answers".  Ultimately the authors admit that there are no easy answers. 
Between those two end points of the book is the usual advice that everyone in
the field is well familiar with.  There are more tales of problems and
disasters than there are solutions or answers: a few "how to" ideas in the
later parts of the book lack analysis and are primarily anecdotal.
 
There really isn't anything here to address the major problems of how to get
upper management and client departments to lock down project requirements when
the IT department has no real power, and how to keep IT management from
pursuing technohype when upper management has no understanding of technology.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996   BKINVSIT.RVW   961117

======================
roberts@decus.ca           rslade@vcn.bc.ca           rslade@vanisl.decus.ca
              Ceterum censeo CNA Financial Services delendam esse
  Please note the Peterson story - http://www.netmind.com/~padgett/trial.htm