Download or read book History of Computing Software Issues written by Ulf Hashagen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Secret of Apollo written by Stephen B. Johnson and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2006-10-31 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Emme Award for Astronautical Literature from the American Astronautical Society How does one go about organizing something as complicated as a strategic-missile or space-exploration program? Stephen B. Johnson here explores the answer—systems management—in a groundbreaking study that involves Air Force planners, scientists, technical specialists, and, eventually, bureaucrats. Taking a comparative approach, Johnson focuses on the theory, or intellectual history, of "systems engineering" as such, its origins in the Air Force's Cold War ICBM efforts, and its migration to not only NASA but the European Space Agency. Exploring the history and politics of aerospace development and weapons procurement, Johnson examines how scientists and engineers created the systems management process to coordinate large-scale technology development, and how managers and military officers gained control of that process. "Those funding the race demanded results," Johnson explains. "In response, development organizations created what few expected and what even fewer wanted—a bureaucracy for innovation. To begin to understand this apparent contradiction in terms, we must first understand the exacting nature of space technologies and the concerns of those who create them."

Download or read book Animating Unpredictable Effects written by Jordan Gowanlock and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uncanny computer-generated animations of splashing waves, billowing smoke clouds, and characters flowing hair have become a ubiquitous presence on screens of all types since the 1980s. This Open Access book charts the history of these digital moving images and the software tools that make them. Unpredictable Visual Effects uncovers an institutional and industrial history that saw media industries conducting more private R & D as Cold War federal funding began to wane in the late 1980s. In this context studios and media software companies took concepts used for studying and managing unpredictable systems like markets, weather, and fluids and turned them into tools for animation. Unpredictable Visual Effects theorizes how these animations are part of a paradigm of control evident across society, while at the same time exploring what they can teach us about the relationship between making and knowing.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Project Management written by Peter W. G. Morris and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Project Management presents and discusses leading ideas in the management of projects. Positioning project management as a domain much broader and more strategic than simply 'execution management', this Handbook draws on the insights of over 40 scholars to chart the development of the subject over the last 50 years or more as an area of increasing practical and academic interest. It suggests we could be entering an emerging 'third wave' of analysis and interpretation following its early technical and operational beginnings and the subsequent shift to a focus on projects and their management. Topics dealt with include: the historical evolution of the subject; its theoretical base; professionalism; business and societal context; strategy; organization; governance; innovation; overruns; risk; information management; procurement; relationships and trust; knowledge management; practice and teams. This handbook is of particular relevance to those interested in the research issues underlying project management.

Download or read book Rearming for the Cold War 1945 1960 written by Elliott Vanveltner Converse and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2012 with total page 792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book Description: The first publication in a multivolume series on the history of the acquisition of major weapon systems by the Department of Defense, author Elliott Converse presents a meticulously researched overview of changes in acquisition policies, organizations, and processes within the United States military establishment during the decade and a half following World War II. Many of the changes that shaped the nature and course of weapons research and development, production, and contracting through the end of the century were instituted between 1945 and 1960; many of the problems that have repeatedly challenged defense policymakers and acquisition professionals also first surfaced during these years. This study is the first to combine the histories of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and the military services into one account. The volume is organized chronologically, with individual chapters addressing the roles of OSD, the Army, Navy and Air Force in two distinct periods.

Download or read book The Business of Systems Integration written by Andrea Prencipe and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2005-04-14 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade or so, systems integration has become a key factor in the operations, strategy and competitive advantage of major corporations in a wide variety of sectors (e.g. computing, automotive, telecommunications, military systems and aerospace). Systems integration is a strategic task that pervades business management not only at the technical level but also at the management and strategic levels. This book shows how and why this new kind of systems integration has evolved into an emerging model of industrial organization whereby firms, and groups of firms, join together different types of knowledge, skill and activity, as well as hardware, software, and human resources to produce new products for the marketplace. This book is the first to systematically explore systems integration from a business and innovation perspective. Contributors delve deeply into the nature, dimensions and dynamics of the new systems integration, deploying research and analytical techniques from a wide variety of disciplines including, the theory of the firm, the history of technology, industrial organization, regional studies, strategic management, and innovation studies. This wealth of research capability provides deep insights into the new model of systems integration and supports this with an abundance of empirical evidence. The book is organized in three main parts. The first part focuses on the history of systems integration. Contributors trace the early history of systems integration using different industrial examples. The second part presents theoretical and analytical aspects of systems integration. Contributions concentrate on the regulatory and cognitive features of systems integration, the relationships between systems integration and regional competitive advantage, and the way in which systems integration supports the competitive advantage of firms. The third part takes industry and firm-level approaches. Contributions focus on different sectors and highlight the specificity of systems integration in various industrial domains, stressing its importance for systems integration in the case of complex capital goods, such as aircraft and telecommunications equipment, as well as consumer goods, such as personal computers and automobiles.

Download or read book Undisciplining Knowledge written by Harvey J. Graff and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2015-08-01 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first critical history of interdisciplinary efforts and movements in the modern university. Interdisciplinarity—or the interrelationships among distinct fields, disciplines, or branches of knowledge in pursuit of new answers to pressing problems—is one of the most contested topics in higher education today. Some see it as a way to break down the silos of academic departments and foster creative interchange, while others view it as a destructive force that will diminish academic quality and destroy the university as we know it. In Undisciplining Knowledge, acclaimed scholar Harvey J. Graff presents readers with the first comparative and critical history of interdisciplinary initiatives in the modern university. Arranged chronologically, the book tells the engaging story of how various academic fields both embraced and fought off efforts to share knowledge with other scholars. It is a story of myths, exaggerations, and misunderstandings, on all sides. Touching on a wide variety of disciplines—including genetic biology, sociology, the humanities, communications, social relations, operations research, cognitive science, materials science, nanotechnology, cultural studies, literacy studies, and biosciences—the book examines the ideals, theories, and practices of interdisciplinarity through comparative case studies. Graff interweaves this narrative with a social, institutional, and intellectual history of interdisciplinary efforts over the 140 years of the modern university, focusing on both its implementation and evolution while exploring substantial differences in definitions, goals, institutional locations, and modes of organization across different areas of focus. Scholars across the disciplines, specialists in higher education, administrators, and interested readers will find the book’s multiple perspectives and practical advice on building and operating—and avoiding fallacies and errors—in interdisciplinary research and education invaluable.

Download or read book Modernism and the Social Sciences written by Mark Bevir and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-28 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores the rise and nature of modernist approaches to economics, sociology, international relations, administration, language, history and anthropology.

Download or read book The Economic Consequences of U S Mobilization for the Second World War written by Alexander J. Field and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reminder that war is not always, or even generally, good for long-term growth Many believe that despite its destructive character, war ultimately boosts long‑term economic growth. For the United States this view is often supported by appeal to the experience of the Second World War, understood as a triumph of both production and productivity. Alexander Field shows that between 1941 and 1945 manufacturing productivity actually declined, depressed by changes in the output mix and resource shocks from enemy action, including curtailed access to natural rubber and, on the Eastern Seaboard, petroleum. The war forced a shift away from producing goods in which the country had a great deal of experience toward those in which it had little. Learning by doing was only a partial counterbalance to the intermittent idleness and input hoarding that characterized a shortage economy and dragged down productivity. The conflict distorted human and physical capital accumulation and once it ended, America stopped producing most of the new goods. The war temporarily shut down basic scientific research and the ongoing development of civilian goods. U.S. world economic dominance in 1948, Field shows, was due less to the experience of making war goods and more to the country’s productive potential in 1941.

Download or read book Machine Dreams written by Philip Mirowski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-12-03 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This was the first cross-over book into the history of science written by an historian of economics. It shows how 'history of technology' can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. The analysis combines Cold War history with the history of postwar economics in America and later elsewhere, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with abstruse and formal doctrines such as linear programming and game theory. It links the literature on 'cyborg' to economics, an element missing in literature to date. The treatment further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents, arguing that neoclassical economics has participated in the deconstruction of the integral 'self'. Finally, it argues for an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing else besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism.

Download or read book Developing A Body Of Knowledge For Green Construction Project Management written by Amos Darko and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2024-09-10 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growing global imperatives to address sustainability concerns have boosted the importance and prominence of green construction projects worldwide. However, project managers may lack the specialist knowledge and/or technical skills to overcome the unique challenges to successfully deliver suitably sustainable green projects. This book aims to address this shortfall by unearthing, refining and synergising the hitherto scattered gems of experiential and theoretical knowledge, into a unified Body of Knowledge for green construction project management.Comprising both conceptual principles as well as practical case studies, this book for the first time assembles, structures and consolidates a comprehensive body of knowledge for green construction project management that addresses the unique aspects of this critical domain. It will fulfil a now critical need: equipping industry practitioners, researchers and students with the core project management knowledge and skills needed to successfully deliver green construction projects. It is a must-read for anyone who seeks to develop core green construction project management knowledge and skills, and those intending to move into green construction project management.

Download or read book Projects written by Andrew Davies and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A project is a temporary coalition of people and resources brought together to achieve a one-off objective. Andrew Davies explains how and why the project approach is central to success in creating products and services, constructing major infrastructure, launching entrepreneurial ventures, implementing strategies, even landing a man on the moon.

Download or read book Systems Engineering written by Joseph Eli Kasser and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-09-18 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will change the way you think about problems. It focuses on creating solutions to all sorts of complex problems by taking a practical, problem-solving approach. It discusses not only what needs to be done, but it also provides guidance and examples of how to do it. The book applies systems thinking to systems engineering and introduces several innovative concepts such as direct and indirect stakeholders and the Nine-System Model, which provides the context for the activities performed in the project, along with a framework for successful stakeholder management. FEATURES • Treats systems engineering as a problem-solving methodology • Describes what tools systems engineers use and how they use them in each state of the system lifecycle • Discusses the perennial problem of poor requirements, defines the grammar and structure of a requirement, and provides a template for a good imperative construction statement and the requirements for writing requirements • Provides examples of bad and questionable requirements and explains the reasons why they are bad and questionable • Introduces new concepts such as direct and indirect stakeholders and the Shmemp! • Includes the Nine-System Model and other unique tools for systems engineering

Download or read book Age of System written by Hunter Heyck and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2015-09 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the years after World War II, a new generation of scholars redefined the central concepts and practices of social science in America. Before the Second World War, social scientists struggled to define and defend their disciplines. After the war, “high modern” social scientists harnessed new resources in a quest to create a unified understanding of human behavior—and to remake the world in the image of their new model man. In Age of System, Hunter Heyck explains why social scientists—shaped by encounters with the ongoing “organizational revolution” and its revolutionary technologies of communication and control—embraced a new and extremely influential perspective on science and nature, one that conceived of all things in terms of system, structure, function, organization, and process. He also explores how this emerging unified theory of human behavior implied a troubling similarity between humans and machines, with freighted implications for individual liberty and self-direction. These social scientists trained a generation of decision-makers in schools of business and public administration, wrote the basic textbooks from which millions learned how the economy, society, polity, culture, and even the mind worked, and drafted the position papers, books, and articles that helped set the terms of public discourse in a new era of mass media, think tanks, and issue networks. Drawing on close readings of key texts and a broad survey of more than 1,800 journal articles, Heyck follows the dollars—and the dreams—of a generation of scholars that believed in “the system.” He maps the broad landscape of changes in the social sciences, focusing especially intently on the ideas and practices associated with modernization theory, rational choice theory, and modeling. A highly accomplished historian, Heyck relays this complicated story with unusual clarity.

Download or read book Reconstructing Project Management written by Peter W. G. Morris and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-03-08 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This hugely informative and wide-ranging analysis on the management of projects, past, present and future, is written both for practitioners and scholars. Beginning with a history of the discipline’s development, Reconstructing Project Management provides an extensive commentary on its practices and theoretical underpinnings, and concludes with proposals to improve its relevancy and value. Written not without a hint of attitude, this is by no means simply another project management textbook. The thesis of the book is that ‘it all depends on how you define the subject’; that much of our present thinking about project management as traditionally defined is sometimes boring, conceptually weak, and of limited application, whereas in reality it can be exciting, challenging and enormously important. The book draws on leading scholarship and case studies to explore this thesis. The book is divided into three major parts. Following an Introduction setting the scene, Part 1 covers the origins of modern project management – how the discipline has come to be what it is typically said to be; how it has been constructed – and the limitations of this traditional model. Part 2 presents an enlarged view of the discipline and then deconstructs this into its principal elements. Part 3 then reconstructs these elements to address the challenges facing society, and the implications for the discipline, in the years ahead. A final section reprises the sweep of the discipline’s development and summarises the principal insights from the book. This thoughtful commentary on project (and program, and portfolio) management as it has developed and has been practiced over the last 60-plus years, and as it may be over the next 20 to 40, draws on examples from many industry sectors around the world. It is a seminal work, required reading for everyone interested in projects and their management.

Download or read book Big Data Analytics and Intelligent Techniques for Smart Cities written by Kolla Bhanu Prakash and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-09-20 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Big Data Analytics and Intelligent Techniques for Smart Cities covers fundamentals, advanced concepts, and applications of big data analytics for smart cities in a single volume. This comprehensive reference text discusses big data theory modeling and simulation for smart cities and examines case studies in a single volume. The text discusses how to develop a smart city and state-of-the-art system design, system verification, real-time control and adaptation, Internet of Things, and testbeds. It covers applications of smart cities as they relate to smart transportation/connected vehicle (CV) and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) for improved mobility, safety, and environmental protection. It will be useful as a reference text for graduate students in different areas including electrical engineering, computer science engineering, civil engineering, and electronics and communications engineering. Features: Technologies and algorithms associated with the application of big data for smart cities Discussions on big data theory modeling and simulation for smart cities Applications of smart cities as they relate to smart transportation and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) Discussions on concepts including smart education, smart culture, and smart transformation management for social and societal changes

Download or read book Herbert A Simon written by Hunter Crowther-Heyck and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2005-04-27 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this informed and discerning study, Crowther-Heyck explores Simon's contributions to science and their influences on modern life and thought. For historians of science, social science, technology, and twentieth-century American intellectual and cultural history, this account of Herbert Simon's life and work provides a rich and valuable perspective. Rarely does the world see as versatile a figure as Herbert Simon. He was a Nobel laureate in economics; an accomplished political scientist; winner of a lifetime achievement award from the American Psychological Association; and founder of the department of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. In all his work in all these fields, he pursued a single goal - to create a science that could map the bounds of human reason and so enlarge its role in human affairs. Hunter Crowther-Heyck uses the career of this unique individual to examine the evolution of the social sciences after World War II, particularly Simon's creation of a new field, systems science, which joined together two distinct, powerful approaches to human behavior, the sciences of choice and control. Simon sought to develop methods by which human behavior: specifically human problem-solving, could be modeled and simulated. Regarding mind and machine as synonymous, Simon applied his models of human behavior to many other areas, from public administration and business management to artificial intelligence and the design of complex social and technical systems. In this informed and discerning study, Crowther-Heyck explores Simon's contributions to science and their influences on modern life and thought.