Information Systems - A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology
Textbook addresses most of the major areas covered in and introductory information technology management course. I would like to see additional content project management, systems planning, and some more on legal and social/organizational issues inherent in information technology systems implementation, but these topics are often not covered in introductory books in this discipline.
There is a very thorough table of contents (see Interface section), the chapters are nicely sub-divided and have a clear visual structure.
There is no index or glossary.
Content in the text is timely and accurate, error-free and unbiased. Examples are from U.S. based companies, as well as international organizations, which helps to broaden the approaches to information systems. Since the subject of this book is recent information technology and the business world, it is a given that some references will have to be updated and changed, the subject area is just changing very quickly.
The text is intentionally presented in a very reader-friendly style that keeps the content from being bogged down with IT jargon, but still explains the IT concepts very well.
The author does a good job of addressing specifics if IS, that can change very quickly, in a broad way by focusing on the overall management and organizational issues and then illustrating those issues with examples from current events and organizations. Overall these examples are recent and relevant.
Many of the specific company references are in specially formatted content boxes so they would be easy to remove/modify, or are addressed in whole chapters that could be removed/modified.
Organizational references made within the general text are broad enough that they would not have to be removed, but could be updated to reflect recent events.
Text is well written and easy to read. Very well written objectives for each sub-chapter, and good use of formatting to give additional meaning and structure to the content.
It is well referenced, though often the references are written directly in the flow of the text (instead of foot/end notes), making some sections harder to read as the reference information is a bit distracting.
The text is clear and consistent, well edited, and written in a single voice. The chapter structure and order are logical and reflective of the discipline.
Book organized into chapters with short (usually 4 to 6 page) sub chapters that make it very easy to move around, or remove small sections if desired with out making the text difficult to read. Subchapters are nicely organized, each starting with Objectives, then finishing with Key Takeaways and a Question & Exercise section. Clear textual and image cues help to identify the different subchapters and sections of the text.
The text does reference itself some, but not in a way that would make removing certain sections prohibitive.
Overall the chapter order and organization is logical and structured well. The selection of chapters is appropriate to the discipline. The structure of the chapters is well presented visually and the breakdown of content into subchapters makes the book easy to read, as well as creates a good framework for moving through the content. (NOTE, this review reflects the chapter structure from the versions available at lardbucket, see Interface section)
Some issues with finding the full book, but is more of a repository issue than an issue with the actual book. The link here is to the Saylor.org edition, it contains all of the charts/graphs that are mentioned in the book, but the chapter structures is more compressed (11 chapters), and there is no table of contents or author information.
If you use the versions available at lardbucket (http://2012books.lardbucket.org), some versions have the images (v. 1.2) and some do not (V 2.0), BUT this site has a better (I think) chapter structure (14 chapters), good table of contents and author information.
I found no grammatical error in the text
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive. Many of the companies used in the examples are US based, but not exclusively. International issues in implementing I.S. is addressed, (different standards, social norms, regulations) though not extensively.
I plan to adapt and adopt this book for my course, and will add some sections from other open textbooks to make a full content solution.