information technology – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Information Technology Project Management, 9th Edition

By Scott J. Pearson | October 18, 2024October 18, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

IT projects comprise a particularly difficult niche of project management. The field is so new, and IT professionals’ proficiencies vary widely. The technology quickly evolves, so what was true about project management a few years ago might not be relevant soon thereafter. Personalities can also pose a problem since software developers aren’t reputed to be the most personable workers. In this textbook, impressively in a ninth edition, Kathy Schwalbe provides sage advice by summarizing the…

Leadership Management-Business Software-Technology

Tech Leadership: The Blueprint for Evolving from Individual Contributor to Tech Leader

By Scott J. Pearson | August 13, 2024September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Typically, technical education prepares students for individual positions that require a lot of self-motivated thinking. They don’t usually prepare them for leading teams. Yet some new employees might find that they want to move beyond being an individual contributor (IC) into a leadership role. Getting an MBA would be an obvious educational direction, but that expensive route might not prepare a student for the exact kind of leadership role she/he desires. In this book, Andrew…

Software-Technology

Systems Analysis & Design

By Scott J. Pearson | July 23, 2024July 23, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Information technology (IT) is a fast-moving industry. Its impact on the modern world is also immense, whether in personal, business, or governmental domains. Almost no medium-sized businesses can survive without a robust IT policy. Despite being critical, those interested in joining the IT workforce will find their skills, gained through education, become quickly outdated. Twenty-five years ago, I gained knowledge from textbooks like this by earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science, yet the field…

Management-Business Program Management Software-Technology

Managing IT Projects: How to Pragmatically Deliver Projects for External Customers

By Scott J. Pearson | July 19, 2024July 28, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Business projects involving information technology require their own set of required skills. The product is electronic, not physical, but the implementation is very abstract and technical. Planning and monitoring the work itself pose their own set of risks. Further, because everyone uses software, many think that designing software does not require special expertise, so projects become improperly designed from the start. Project management education does not routinely cover this niche of practical problems, but in…

Management-Business Software-Technology

World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs

By Scott J. Pearson | July 24, 2023July 24, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

In the years following this 2009 book, the central place of information technology (IT) in the business world has only become recognized more and more. The COVID pandemic accelerated trends whereby IT plays a critical role in global business culture. Peter High’s book fixed the paradigm for how successful IT might be leveraged for business success. Almost 15 years later, the question then becomes: Is it still relevant? Yes, I argue. This classic helps us…

Leadership Management-Business Software-Technology

The CIO Paradox: Battling the Contradictions of IT Leadership

By Scott J. Pearson | February 23, 2023September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

I write this review a full decade after this book was published. Further, I am a software developer in a large organization and, though quite happy, will likely never become a CIO at that company. Therefore, I don’t reside in the intended audience in this book. However, I notice many of these paradoxes in my work. I have to master the technical aspects of my job yet be adept enough to communicate to end-users. I…

Leadership Management-Business Software-Technology

Fostering Innovation: How to Build an Amazing IT Team

By Scott J. Pearson | August 12, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

A Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a relatively new addition to a modern business’s C-suite. However, despite being recent, in an era of digital innovation, it’s become an essential one. Instead of offloading work onto employees, most companies try to offload some of the work onto the IT department. IT specialists, the builders of technology, usually cannot meld their products into business-ready deliverables. That’s where the CIO comes in, to lead tech efforts towards a…

Management-Business Software-Technology

Agile Essentials: You Always Wanted to Know

By Scott J. Pearson | May 23, 2021May 23, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

I’ve worked as a software developer in Agile environments since around 2014 and have enjoyed the productivity and quality gains that this paradigm provides. This workplace loosely implements Agile and accomplishes amazing feats of productivity. In this book, Ashar distills Agile concepts into easy-to-read chunks that can be quickly implemented. This book empowers managers to organize their team’s work more effectively so that customers can benefit more readily. Ashar begins this guide by stating that…

Management-Business Research-Education Software-Technology

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps

By Scott J. Pearson | April 19, 2021April 19, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

DevOps, roughly speaking, seeks to get IT workers to interact with each other more – particularly when they are in different functional roles. Authors Humble and Kim have led this movement and pioneered annual studies to ascertain its progress among practitioners of technology. In this book, they team together with Forsgren (a PhD who brings a rigorous knowledge of statistics and data collection to the table) to present their findings and explain their methods. IT…

Indie Software-Technology

Cybersecurity: Advanced and Effective Measures to Secure Your Cyber Networks

By Scott J. Pearson | June 22, 2020June 22, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This book attempts to provide basic and practical measures that can guide an IT professional into more security expertise. It claims that it can teach the reader methods on how to detect vulnerabilities. It succeeds in surveying the technologies relevant to the task, but it falls short in the execution of writing. Lewis, no doubt, is a good security professional. However, he does not explain a topic thoroughly. He is too terse and concise. He…