Information Overload: Creating Value With the New Information Systems Technology (Yourdon Press Computing Series) [Hardcover]

Jerrold M. Grochow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1996 | Series: Yourdon Press Computing Series

Information overload prepares non-technical readers for their roles in helping to specify and implement systems using the new information systems technology. Also allows technical readers to understand technology issues in the broader context of creating business value.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A complete guide to the technologies that will shape systems development for the next decade. This is an insightful managers's guide to the dramatic changes now impacting IS and the organization. It explains why architecture really matters, and how a well-architected system can dramatically improve an organization's readiness for the future. Readers will understand the importance of components, what to expect from new Internet/intranet technologies, and what has been learned about downsizing mainframe applications to date. They will discover new strategies for ensuring that the new technology their organizations introduce actually adds value. For anyone involved in using, selecting, designing and implementing information systems in large organizations.

From the Back Cover

Helps managers gain a high-level understanding of the dramatic changes now impacting IS and the organization.Explains why architecture really matters, and how a well-architected system can dramatically improve an organization's readiness for the future. Explains the importance of components, and what to expect from new Internet/intranet technologies, and what has been learned about downsizing mainframe applications to date. Offers strategies for ensuring that the new technology organizations introduce actually adds value.Anyone involved in using, selecting, designing and implementing information systems in large organizations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 281 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr; 1st edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0135276314
• ISBN-13: 978-0135276310
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,130,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New technology paradigm solves old technology problems., February 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Information Overload: Creating Value With the New Information Systems Technology (Yourdon Press Computing Series) (Hardcover)

William Sheridan/Systems Analyst/Ottawa, Canada

Two of the hottest topics in information technology circles these days, are (1) client-server systems, and (2) object-oriented programming. Using a writing style that is both technically sophisticated AND readily understandable, Jerry Grochow outlines what each means, and how each works. THEN he explains why both client-server and object-orientation are part of the larger framework which will enable business to create satisfied customers (both internal and external) with the new information technology.

As Grochow describes it, the key to these future possibilities is the concept of SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE. As more and more people, at work and home, get desk-top computers AND access to networks (the organizational intra-net and/or the global inter-net), computer power becomes DISTRIBUTED through communications. The change from main-frame centralization connecting dumb terminals, to decentralized machines with distributed intelligence, has fundamentally altered the structural pattern of informatics and telematics.

This structural pattern is the SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE, and the alteration now in progress both empowers every user, AND requires new principles of design and operation. Grochow, a 25-year veteran of systems design and network computing, has been tracking these kind of changes through the many successive stages of micro-chip evolution and network service enhancements. What he argues is, that the very dilemma which the technology has created (namely information overload), can now be managed by broadening the application of intelligence from individual nodes to the entire network.

Object-oriented programming is the software answer to the distributed computing question. As people share data and applications over the networks, the internal design of software itself faces new challenges. Monolithic relational databases and structured programs do not serve networked computers very well. As needs for distributed data entry and program customization increase with the spread of knowledge work, the coordination of version control and extension implications can no longer be handled by the inflexibility of previous designs. Just as Grochow sees all computing as client-server based now, he forecasts that we will all become object-oriented users shortly.

And Grochow is certainly right about the speed of change in this field. In regards to system development methodologies (SDMs), an object-oriented approach has already obsolesced both the "waterfall" and the "spiral" models. Scott Ambler's Pinball System Development Life Cycle method is actually far more reflective of the dynamic reality of application development than the overly-formalized models of the past (see Ambler's THE OBJECT PRIMER). But with the flexible outlook that Grochow exudes, developers will be as easily able to accommodate such a methodological change as they will any other technological advance. INFORMATION OVERLOAD really is a map of the future of the new information systems technology. And when you are heading into new territory, its always wise to consult a map

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best book of managing emerging IT, March 3, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Information Overload: Creating Value With the New Information Systems Technology (Yourdon Press Computing Series) (Hardcover)

This book deals with both technical and managerial issues of emerging technology and has provided an architecture framework for integrating C/S, OO, Networking, WWW together. Highly recommended for people who have to manage emerging IT in a firm