Book description
How much should top management really care about IT? That's the
question Adam Kolawa bluntly poses in this feisty and compelling book.
“The Next Leap in Productivity” goes far beyond traditional business
books written for the CIO community. It tackles crucial issues such as
productivity, efficiency and quality management. It makes the case for
applying the principles of Deming and Juran to software development.
Then it takes a “leap,” arguing that huge potential increases in IT
productivity can lead to enormous increases in enterprise productivity.
In this sense, “The Next Leap in Productivity” is a truly visionary book.
Software vendors and CIOs who read this book will discover a software
development process that is transparent, practical and efficient.
Non-technical C-level executives (CEOs, CFOs, COOs, etc.) will
discover a blueprint for improving corporate productivity and
dramatically reducing operating costs.
For the past decade, CIOs have been urged, coaxed, counseled and
exhorted to act more like CEOs, CFOs, COOs and other C-level
executives. This book suggests that it's time for CEOs, CFOs, COOs and
other C-level executives to start acting more like CIOs. “The Next
Leap in Productivity” will appeal to anyone involved in buying,
selling, developing or using IT.
Advance Praise for “The Next Leap in Productivity”
“Adam's book is a challenge to all the top managers who've
stopped caring about IT. His message is simple: If you really care
about IT, you find ways to make IT more productive. The improvements
you achieve in IT productivity can then be leveraged into huge leaps
in productivity at the enterprise level. This book offers a roadmap
for translating IT productivity into business profit. Adam's argument
is worth reading and worth considering as you formulate your IT
strategies and plan your IT budgets.”--Gary Beach, Publisher
Emeritus, CIO magazine
“Adam lays the groundwork for a common language that can be used to
bridge the chasms between IT and other essential components of the
business such as finance, product development, sales, marketing,
distribution and customer service. Everyone who reads this book will
learn valuable lessons that can be leveraged to improve returns on
human capital investments at every level of the organization. Adam's
concepts have the potential to boost levels of confidence and
performance throughout the enterprise.”-- Michael Minelli,
Co-author, Partnering with the CIO
“These kinds of productivity principles are not mere theory. When we
put these same principles into effect, our productivity went up more
than we had thought possible. And our employee morale went up, too. It
became easier to write code the right way and harder to make stupid
mistakes. This new way of creating software makes it possible for us
to concentrate on what we really want to do here at Cisco, which is to
improve the Internet for everybody.”-- Andy Chessin, Senior
Technical Lead, Cisco, Inc.
Adam Kolawa, PhD, is CEO and cofounder of
Parasoft, a respected global provider of software solutions and
services. He has been granted sixteen patents for his recent
inventions, was awarded the Los Angeles Ernst & Young's
Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the software category and was
recognized by eWeek as one of the 100 Most Influential People
in IT. He is the coauthor of Automated Defect Prevention: Best
Practices in Software Management, published by Wiley, as well as
Bulletproofing Web Applications.
