Wow! eBook – Blog

Book Description

Succeed with Scrum in Even the Largest, Most Complex Distributed Development Projects

This is the first comprehensive, practical guide for Scrum practitioners working in large-scale distributed environments. Written by three of IBM’s leading Scrum practitioners–in close collaboration with the IBM QSE Scrum Community of more than 1000 members worldwide–this book offers specific, actionable guidance for everyone who wants to succeed with Scrum in the enterprise.

Readers will follow a journey through the lifecycle of a distributed Scrum project, from envisioning products and setting up teams to preparing for Sprint planning and running retrospectives. Each chapter presents a baseline drawn from “conventional” Scrum, then discusses additional issues faced by distributed teams, and presents specific best-practice solutions, alternatives, and tips the authors have identified through hard, empirical experience.

Using real-world examples, the book demonstrates how to apply key Scrum practices, such as look-ahead planning in geographically distributed environments. Readers will also gain valuable new insights into the agile management of complex problem and technical domains.

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Book Description

Cognos Report Studio is widely used for creating and managing business reports in medium to large companies. It is simple enough for any business analyst, power user, or developer to pick up and start developing basic reports. However, when it comes to developing more sophisticated, fully functional business reports for wider audiences, report authors will need guidance.

This book helps you understand and use all the features provided by Report Studio to generate impressive deliverables. It will take you from being a beginner to a professional report author. It bridges the gap between basic training provided by manuals or trainers and the practical techniques learned over years of practice.

This book covers all the basic and advanced features of Report Authoring. It begins by bringing readers on the same platform and introducing the fundamental features useful across any level of reporting. Then it ascends to advanced techniques and tricks to overcome Studio limitations.Develop excellent reports using dimensional data sources by following best practices that development work requires in Report Studio. You will also learn about editing the report outside the Studio by directly editing the XML specifications.

Provide richness to the user interface by adding JavaScript and HTML tags. The main focus is on the practical use of various powerful features that Report Studio has to offer to suit your business requirements. Download Now »

Book Description

The Software Insider’s Guide to Getting Hired and Getting to the Top!

Here’s all the information you need to jumpstart your software career: the best ways to get hired, move up, and blaze your way to the top! The software business has radically changed, and this book reveals today’s realities–everything your professors and corporate managers never told you. In his 20 years at IBM as a software architect, senior manager, and lead programmer, Sam Lightstone has briefed dozens of leading companies and universities on careers, new technology, and emerging areas of research. He currently works on one of the world’s largest software development teams and spends a good part of his time recruiting and mentoring software engineers. This book shares all the lessons for success Sam has learned…plus powerful insights from 17 of the industry’s biggest stars. Want to make it big in software? Start right here!

Discover how to
• Get your next job in software development
• Master the nontechnical skills crucial to your success
• “Work the org” to move up rapidly
• Successfully manage your time, projects, and life
• Avoid “killer” mistakes that could destroy your career
• Move up to “medium-shot,” “big-shot,” and finally, “visionary” Download Now »

Book Description

With Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.1, IBM has once again provided business users with an intuitive, fully integrated platform to enhance each user’s experience with business communications, while reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and increasing Return on Investment (ROI). You can create and share information effectively to make quick business decisions and streamline the way they work. It is no longer just an email tool, but a means of extending business communications to a new level. In order to utilize all the powerful features of the new release, you need to upgrade your existing system to Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.1.

Written by senior architects and specialists of IBM Software Services for Lotus, this book will be your guide and enable you to quickly upgrade your existing system and leverage the full capabilities of Lotus Notes 8.5.1. The authors explore the enhanced productivity tools available with this release by integrating word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets into a seamless unit with your messaging and collaboration solution.

The book starts with an overview of Lotus Notes and Domino, including all the exciting features in the new version. You will learn to utilize the efficient productivity tools that are shipped with Lotus Notes client, and discover the updates in Domino server. You will learn the specific steps needed to upgrade to Lotus Notes 8.5.1 with detailed explanations so that you can upgrade from any previous Lotus Notes and Domino release.
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Book Description

A data grid is a means of combining computing resources. Data grids provide a way to distribute object storage and add capacity on demand in the form of CPU, memory, and network resources from additional servers. All three resource types play an important role in how fast data can be processed, and how much data can be processed at once. WebSphere eXtreme Scale provides a solution to scalability issues through caching and grid technology. Working with a data grid requires new approaches to writing highly scalable software; this book covers both the practical eXtreme Scale libraries and design patterns that will help you build scalable software.

Starting with a blank slate, this book assumes you don’t have experience with IBM WebSphere eXtreme Scale. It is a tutorial-style guide detailing the installation of WebSphere eXtreme Scale right through to using the developer libraries. It covers installation and configuration, and discusses the reasons why a data grid is a viable middleware layer. It also covers many different ways of interacting with objects in eXtreme Scale. It will also show you how to use eXtreme Scale in new projects, and integrate it with relational databases and existing applications.

This book covers the ObjectMap, Entity, and Query APIs for interacting with objects in the grid. It shows client/server configurations and interactions, as well as the powerful DataGrid API. DataGrid allows us to send code into the grid, which can be run where the data lives. Equally important are the design patterns that go alongside using a data grid. This book covers the major concepts you need to know that prevent your client application from becoming a performance bottleneck. By the end of the book, you’ll be able to write software using the eXtreme Scale APIs, and take advantage of a linearly scalable middleware layer. Download Now »

Book Description

The Hands-On Guide to Thriving with Web 2.0 and Social Networking

• Deepen employee and coworker relationships, improve productivity, strengthen collaboration, and boost creativity
• Embrace, support, and manage social networking so it works for you, not against you
• Best practices and new case studies from IBM^® and many of its most innovative portal and social networking sites

This book provides hands-on, start-to-finish guidance for business and IT decision-makers who want to drive value from Web 2.0 and social networking technologies. IBM expert Joey Bernal systematically identifies business functions and innovations these technologies can enhance and presents best-practice patterns for using them in both internal- and external-facing applications. Drawing on the immense experience of IBM and its customers, Bernal addresses both the business and technical issues enterprises must manage to succeed. He offers insights and case studies covering multiple technologies, including AJAX, REST, Atom/RSS, enterprise taxonomies, tagging, folksonomies, portals, mashups, blogs, wikis, and more. He also presents practical guidance for building robust, secure, collaborative applications by using applications and services from multiple sources with powerful tools such as WebSphere^® Portal, Lotus^® Connections, and IBM Mashup Center. Download Now »