2 comments about Agile Portfolio Management.

1. 
   I was looking forward to this book! An important hole in the current agile literature and a book only on this subject. Finally... but ... I'm extremely disappointed.
   
   Jochen Krebs' Agile Portfolio Management consists of 3 parts. Part one is called "Agile for Managers", part two is the things about portfolio management and part three is *other* called organization and environment.
   
   The first part consists of three chapters. The first chapter consists a general motivation for agile development and responding to change. The second chapter is a short introduction to Agile development and the last chapter an introduction to project management. This takes up 1/4th of the book. The explanations are poorly written and full with misunderstandings. To give a concrete example, on page 27 Jochen is suggesting that in Scrum you can not have any other meetings except for the daily Scrum. A recommendation which I've never heard before and I'm pretty sure he didn't actually mean that!
   
   Part two consists of about 125 pages and is the main subject of the book, though it starts with three somewhat introduction chapters called Foundation, Metrics and Return of Investment. These chapters don't show too much experience from the author. The suggestion that TDD and Continuous Integration finds defects early so that one of the main quality metrics is open defect count is absurd and goes directly against advise of great agile literature like "Art of Agile development" or "Sustainable Software Development". It gives the feeling the author simply forgot to learn about agile development before he wrote the book. The explanation of story points was vague, the explanation of Use Case points unnecessary. The talk about return of investment forgot to give actual tools for doing so.
   
   After the first 100 pages, I almost threw away the book and was pretty sure I would rate it 1 start. Though, luckily it started to improve. If you buy this book, I recommend to skip the first 100 pages :)
   
   Chapter 7, 8, and 9 cover three portfolios: Project, resource and asset. The project portfolio covered some good ideas like increasing the portfolio decision frequency, using agile metrics and making other decisions than go/kill. The resource portfolio chapter was poor and doesn't talk much about resource management. The asset portfolio chapter is short but covers some important topics not covered frequently in other places.
   
   Part three just consists of two chapters. The first one uses Scrum to become a portfolio management process. I found the idea interest and absurd. Especially the daily portfolio meeting and the portfolio master seen a sure sign of misapplication. The chapter is speculative, the real story about the real situation is missing. It made me doubt the author has actually done this. The second chapter of part three is a chapter about the PMO. I very strongly disagree with the suggestions from the author, especially making the PMO larger for Agile organizations.
   
   In other words, I only thought that part two was worth my time (and only half of that) thats about 50 pages... Next to this, the writing and editing of the book was poor. Some constructions seem very German and sentences are constructed poorly making me sleepy while reading. I wonder if Microsoft Press did any editing at all or supported the author at all. Quite disappointing.
   
   I would not recommend this book to anyone. It's probably better to read some traditional portfolio management book (e.g. Coopers Portfolio Management for New Products) together with some basic Agile books and especially Mike Cohn Agile Estimating and Planning (which covers much of the ROI and value calculation, but explained better). If you read all of these and want some insights and ideas from this book, just read chapter 7, 8 and 9 and skip the rest.
   
   I still rated this book three stars, which is probably too high. After the first 100 pages, I was sure it would not be higher than 1 star. But some chapters contained some insights and that made me decide to give it 2 stars. I switched to three stars simply because I applaud the attempt. This is a new area, there is no existing material and it is great Jochen took this opportunity and tried to fill a gap. Though, a different book is probably needed.



2. As an IT leader in a large financial services firm I appreciated Mr. Krebs' bringing an introduction to Agile to someone with little or no background on the subject.
   
   The book is very approachable and is built for senior managers with very little time (or need) to invest in detailed understanding of Agile.
   
   This book has given me the basis I need to understand where I need to take my organization over the next three years - chucking the old, outdated, mainframe version of software development to a methodology that can meet my business partners need to be more flexible.
   
   I highly recommend this for any IT leader who sees the needs to build a more responsive software development organization.

5 comments about Guerrilla Capacity Planning: A Tactical Approach to Planning for Highly Scalable Applications and Services.

1. I've only given this three stars because it isn't really a self-contained capacity planning "textbook". In conjunction with "Analyzing Computer Systems Performance: With Perl: PDQ", one can "figure out" how to do capacity planning. But neither of these books is really a "textbook" -- they're more a collection of lectures, previous papers, case studies, and irrelevant diversions away from computer capacity planning into physics.
   
   On the plus side, there are quite a few unique contributions that Dr. Gunther has made in this book, and his two previous books. For example, I have not found either his use of the gamma distribution for computing quantiles of response time distributions or his "universal scalability model" anywhere else. As far as I know, his course, also called "Guerrilla Capacity Planning", is the only place you can learn to do capacity planning outside of a university, and his "Perl::PDQ" package is the only open source analytical modeling tool set available. And his analysis of the capacity effects of hyperthreading in "Guerrilla Capacity Planning" is much better than anything I've seen elsewhere. It's too bad Intel didn't have his expertise available when they developed hyperthreading. :)
   
   Finally, some very specific criticisms of the "Universal Scalability Model". First of all, as Dr. Gunther takes great pains to point out, Microsoft Excel does not do a very good job of calculating it. He even has an appendix with Mathematica code to redo one of the examples, showing how inaccurate the Excel version is. Why, then, does he *use* Microsoft Excel? Why did he not include Perl code that does a better job? Why did he not add a module for the Universal Scalability Model to Perl::PDQ? There are plenty of statistical libraries for Perl available on CPAN; I'm sure he could have found a non-linear least squares routine there.
   
   Second, and much more serious, Dr. Gunther advocates fitting the Universal Scalability Model to test data, and then *extrapolating* the results to project the capacity of a system to values outside of the range of the test data! This is absolutely, positively the wrong thing to do!
   
   If the model were *linear*, such extrapolation could be valid over some limited range. But the model isn't linear, it's highly non-linear. And the parameters of the model are in the *denominator* -- *small* changes in the parameter values cause *large* changes in the projected capacity of a system! That makes extrapolation even more risky.
   
   In spite of this, I think the Universal Scalability Model is an important contribution to capacity planning practice when used properly -- for an initial diagnosis of the nature of the bottlenecks in a system, or to estimate the capacity of a system *within the range of available test data.* It's also a good way to characterize the potential scalability of a workload from easily obtained data.



2. With Wall Street analysts drives the planning horizon, Management prefers getting a sense of direction quickly and repeatedly, instead of belated precise readings of compass bearing. It is in this agile and opportunistic spirit and philosophy that Dr. Gunther introduces Excel, linear regression, and 2 parameter scalability models into the performance analysts' tool chest.
   
   Excel is ubiquitous. It is also easy to use. Use it. If there is sufficient time, better tools such as R or Mathematica can be used to cross-check Excel results. Similarly, linear regression is another tool in the agile performance analysts' tool chest.
   
   Two chapters I have not seen presented elsewhere are the virtualization spectrum and effective demand. In a prior job, having virtualization spectrum chapter available to me would have save me much grief with an workload manager. The effective demand makes another useful capacity project tool to keep handy.
   
   The best part is Dr. Gunther's 2 parameter universal scalability model. It can be immediately used to frame your load testing results to project application scalability. This alone is worth the cost of the book and admission to his classes.
   
   Conjecture 4.1 on page 65 on 2 parameters are necessary and sufficient for scalability model based on rational functions are an interesting open questions. Given that the denominator is a quadratic equation with c = 1, we should be able to argue that it behaves like a parabola, except with c = 1, we won't get into singularity/infinity. For more details, please see Dr. Gunther's blog at
   
   [...]



3. 
   First of all, this book was worth the money I spent on it. I came away from reading this book with a clear understanding of the differences between speed and scale, and with a system for modelling the scalability of systems in general.
   
   However... really all of this value was in the first quarter of the book. I read on and read on looking for further conceptual gems but they weren't to be found.
   
   I guess that books are "meant" to be at least a particular length, but this one could have been much shorter and more concise.



4. I've read the other reviews and they seem to ignore the "Guerrilla" concept. The fact that scientific analysis is ignored and decisions made on perceived knowledge in most companies for me is the key to the book. Excel is a great way to get the performance point across even with precision errors. Getting management buy in is 99% of the process. GCP makes that argument simple. Read this book and get the word out. Performance is not linear!



5. Very readable coverage of Capacity Planning and Performance Management. Doesn't presume any previous knowledge, but doesn't talk down either. Several good chapters talking about queueing theory.
   A great practical handbook.

5 comments about TCP/IP Sockets in C: Practical Guide for Programmers (The Practical Guides Series) (The Practical Guides).

1. As a self taught programmer who formalized his hip-pocket knowledege with a formal degree in Semi-Conductor Physics and Applied Electrical Engineering, I still appreciate a easy to read and understandable treatise on any programming subject. This little book is packed full of relevent information and programming snippets to aid even the most basic of programmers. Sometimes even the multi-degreed can be taught or refreshed in a subject. These authors provide a lot of information in a small form factor. It is concise and I recommend it to anyone who wishes to learn or relearn the programming of TCP/IP sockets.



2. Before I got this book I thought writing C programs, that interfaced with TCP/IP sockets, was hard, but with this book in ones reach nothing could be simpler. With the help of this book and the HTTP Pocket Reference: Hypertext Transfer Protocol I was able to write a simple Web server.
   
   The way book gives you the sample codes as complete listing and afterwards dissecting it line by line worked for me.



3. This book gives you an amazing jump start in socket programming, the language is very easy to understand and very clear.
   
   All the examples just work!.
   
   My only concern was that this book does not cover unix domain sockets and link layer sockets such as AF_LOCAL and AF_LINK.
   
   I strongly recommend buying this book.
   
   thanks,
   
   Magesh.



4. Haven't finished the whole book yet, but I feel like it pretty much gave me what I needed by page 102. Recently I was asked to help with a project for embedded FPGA programming. The programming IDE is Eclipse with Altera's NiosII plugin's.
   
   The existing code base did not include any TCP/IP interface, so that has to be implemented. Luckily, the Nios-II platform ships with a simple example project to show the concept and programming style, it did not give too much insight for what is going on behind the scenes.
   
   The project I am working is to create a Socket server interface to this FPGA with a defined application protocol and command set. Having not coded seriously C since graduate school, it started somewhat of a challenge. After a few weeks, I got the urge to understand what is going on behind the scenes.
   
   Knowing what I know about networks, this book solidified and explained the concepts behind socket programming and helped me understand the program calls from the sample application. Step-by-step and clear concept explanation style is also appreciated.
   
   In short, I would recommend this book to anyone who is tasked with creating a socket client/server interface in C language. As a final note, me and another seasoned C programmer co-worker did not get the "code fragment" on page xii, even though I typed and executed in the code in a compiler. We just scratched our heads thinking why anyone would write like that?... hmmm... There is probably a reason that we don't know. Overall good book, instructional, to the point, and as they say, practical. Would definitely recommend it, if you deal with sockets in C.



5. This was just the book that I was looking, at the right price and in good condition.

5 comments about XML Schema.

1. This book had potential to be a definitive guide to XML schema. This is not the kind of book you can pick up and read cover to cover (unless insomnia is a real condition for you, in which case this book may help). It is, by no means, a tutorial of XML schema - or even a reference. It's more of an exploratory academic walk of the W3C recommendation and all of its foibles and nuances. There is wealth of information in this book, if you can glean it out from inbetween the droning prose and historical diatribe.

   O'Reilly should be shamefully embarassed for ever letting this book go to print in the condition it is. It is replete with errata, typos, and slopped together examples. This book is destined to frustrate those new to XML schema. An uncharacteristicly poor level of quality for O'Reilly.




2. This book is very dry and terse. It has all of the required content but it doesn't provide much perspective of how it should be used. You could use it as a reference, but I recommend the XML Schema Companion before this one.



3. XML Schema is used almost everywhere (in connection with XML documents, Web Services, SOAP etc.). So I as other people needed to master XML Schema. There is not a great choice of XML Schema books. Specification is already quite getting old. The book is not easy to read. I read it sequentially chapter after chapter and I mastered a lot of basic rules. The main problem now I see is, XML Schema itself does not give you too much of design freedom. Sometimes you need to define a structure (data type) according value of other elements. So now I know mainly what is not possible to do in XML Schema.
   After all I have to recommend the book. You have to read it twice. So I have just bought another XML Schema book from Priscilla and I hope I will get to know XML Schema from other point of view.



4. This book tells you what you need to know. However, it is a bit of a hard slog because it doesn't tell you why you need to know it. It also throws in obscure acronyms and not only expects you to know what they stand for, but what those protocols/standards/programs imply. Yes, you can learn all you need to know about SQL schema, (and more than you need to know - without telling you why you need to know it, you don't know what to skip), but it is a little more painful than it has to be.



5. A real need for further editions on this book. As others have commented, it's very poorly constructed, poorly indexed and you'll be hard-pressed to quickly find accurate definitions. As other posters have suggested, O'Reilly should be worried that this one got published in this state.

1 comments about Practical IDL Programming.

1. If you're like me, you've probably been confused at times by the semantics of IDL. I've been using IDL for several years now and I still run into obstacles every now and then. What I needed was a book that went through the basics first (like a C or Fortran book) and then covered the really practical stuff like plotting, imaging, saving output etc. Liam Gumley has done a great job here in showing the reader how to put IDL to work. I also own Dave Fanning's book, and the two books complement each other nicely. However I'd have to give the edge to Practical IDL Programming for it's clear and straightforward explanation of IDL fundamentals, and for very clear and well explained example programs, many of which I now use every day.

5 comments about MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-350): Implementing Microsoft® Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 (Pro-Certification).

1. Very helpful for exam 70-350 and daily tasks as IT Network security administrator.



2. Very nice book , I recommended it for all specialist in Microsoft networking, and systems.



3. This book does not base itself in only Microsoft scenario, it covers networks and security in a wide context.
   Well written, gives you the ability to deploy and understand the ISA SERVER, which by itself is an excelent software, and the environments which your are deploy in.
   You don't need to be an expert in IT to comprehend this book, but need to know a little about protocols and TCP/IP.
   Who buys it can enjoy a good travel through the network boundaries world.
   I didn't rate it 5 for 2 reasons. First, the book says, sometimes, you have got an enterprise isa cd, but you have got the standard one.
   The author, sometimes, endeavours so much in assuring your understandable of the subject that spend a few pages more than needed. Another drawback is the excess of "plan, analyse, get information" advices. It becomes repetitive through the pages.
   Well, that is it, a good book and enough to pass the certification exam by yourself.



4. The writing style is somewhat dry.
   
   The enclosed software (ISA server 120 day evaluation) and the computerized test questions make the book worth the money.



5. I used this book (ISA 2004) as the primary material to study for the Isa 2006 70-351 Exam.
   
   It more than covers the foundations of ISA Server and with some time spent on MS.com researching ISA 2006 enhancements is all that was required.
   
   I am becoming a huge fan of the MS Press books and this one is no exception.
   
   Perhaps a little more focus on Enterprise rather than the single chapter would be good as there are a few Enterprise questions in the exam, but still that takes nothing away from this text.
   
   5 Stars!
   
   Mark Grogan

5 comments about Programming Microsoft Windows with C# (Microsoft).

1. This book was a huge disappointment. It seems that Mr. Petzold thinks that GUI is all that Windows programmer should know about. Well, surely this is all you will learn from this book - almost 1300 pages on how to draw shapes and display various kinds of buttons.
   
   On the other hand, people who really code GUIs for living might find this book very interesting as it contains a LOT of information on this topic.
   
   I give it 3 stars for being comprehensive on one topic (GUI?). Took two away for the misleading title.



2. Avoids using the .NET environment, wich is a bit silly.
   But that way you learn and understand more about C#, you have to do it all by yourself(if you wish). Everything you ever wanted to know about text and grafics with forms and C# is in there.



3. I was a Microsoft Visual C++ programmer for more then 5 years. I am currently writting a program that involves heavy graphics in C# and needed a book to learn from quickly and provide extensive details on graphics (drawing to the form; not simply placing buttons and code on it). I went to Borders and looked at it, then ordered it. It is a very good investment if you are doing heavy drawing to the form. As for the people who do not like C# or this book, all I can say is, you do not understand C# as well as you think you do, it is a great program; as for the book, you need to be able to take the pieces of code and then put all of the pieces together (a concept called learning) and stop expecting others to provide every detail of a problem.



4. The last reviewers described all, so I decided not going too deep in my review. At this time I didnt had finished this one yet but for what I already saw its a classic C# for sure. The book price is also very good and if you are thinking in getting knowledge of C# on Windows you will not get this book content in other book so easy, this one you must have in your shelf. Very good book from the Master Petzold.



5. Mr Petzold covers a lot of ground here. The most fun thing is that you can use the very same concepts in VB.NET or J# with no loss in the material. Sometimes I found the book a little bit long winded in its explanations, but in the end you always know that Petzold will deliver. The book seems oriented toward beginners, but experts can benefit too.

5 comments about Programming Web Services with SOAP.

1. This book is a nice introduction to SOAP. It doesn't get caught in the Software wars and has examples of most existing systems. Another advantage: it is a thin book and not a 1000 pages bible. So you can easily read it in a weekend and then decide where you want to dig deeper (if necessary).



2. This book was a disappointment. I got thrown into an XML/SOAP project and had to get up to speed in short order. After struggling on my own for a while I bought this book hoping it would have lots of meat on actually using SOAP::Lite, but it had pretty thin coverage.

   I did like the big-picture overview of the various technologies, but it was not very helpful in writing an actual SOAP client to talk to a third party's SOAP server. Considering that the author of SOAP::Lite also wrote this book, it seems to me that there could have been a whole chapter on SOAP::Lite from the client view.

   This will stay on my shelf as a reference, but for getting up to speed rapidly on actually writing a SOAP client, it was a bust.




3. If your pretty new at SOAP, and if you need an overview, then this is the book you want.
   If you don't care about interoperability, and you just want a book on SOAP within a particular environment (say Java), then this is not the book you want.
   If you need a reference guide, then you don't need this book.



4. If you are new to SOAP and you want to get the overall picture, and you don't care for details, this is the book you need.
   If you need a reference guide, this is not the book you want.
   If you're looking for a book about SOAP on a particular platform (say Java), this is not the book you need.



5. I was so keen to learn from this book, but no matter how hard I tried it had too much nonsense to be readable or usable.

5 comments about Building Enterprise Information Architectures: Reengineering Information Systems (HP Professional Series).

1. Melissa Cook's work is best suited for the reader possessing little exposure to the overarching concepts concerning the use of modern information systems to support enterprise environments. Viewed from this perspective the book appears to be successful. The text covers several EA topics and issues in a simple, relatively non-technical manner. It also devotes, where possible, a portion of its space to the historical background concerning a particular topic.

   For the contemporary CIO or VP of information systems/technology who needs to wrestle with the demands of actually building an enterprise information architecture, the prospects for Cook's book may be different. Such readers may well want to search for texts that drill deeper into the issues and challenges to be faced when building or reengineering application architectures.




2. Melissa's book, although "ancient" in web-time (1996), is bang up to date, stressing the importance of good management-led architectural design. In the current (summer 2000) snowball of interest in everything surrounding XML, her book deserves to be read by anyone interested in serious XML deployment, as it covers the "upstream" issues notoriously overlooked or sidestepped in the rush to early technology deployment. She rightly laments the lack of central authorities taking a lead hand in IT design and project management but offers a way forward using the Zackman Framework and some clearly mapped out targets and milestones. Having been hooked by the strength of her arguments for "why?", I felt a little shortchanged on the "how?" but sufficiently keyed up to look further afield, largely thanks to a very comprehensive bibliography.



3. Ms. Cook takes a no-nonsense approach to building an enterprise architecture that puts business requirements first.

   She starts this excellent book with a quick history, setting information architecture into a context. This is followed by addressing the hard part of architecture: overcoming political resistance and tackling the thorny problems of aligning systems to what the business needs. She pulls no punches.

   The next part of the book, chapter 3, introduces the Zachman Framework, which I personally believe is one of the best foundations for an architecture that aligns IT to business.

   Chapters 4 through 7 thoroughly delves into the layers of the Zachman Framework, and provides a coherent and comprehensive description of all of the "moving parts" from both an IT and a business perspective.

   The theoretical underpinnings are translated into an actionable plan in chapter 8, titled, "Making It Happen". This chapter is pragmatic and gives a detailed roadmap to implementing an enterprise information architecture that will truly align information technology to business requirements.

   Here are the key things I like about this book: (1) It focuses on the business, subordinating technology to a supporting role. This is refreshing. (2) It provides one of the best descriptions of the Zachman Framework I have ever read. (3) Political realities and organizational resistance are taken into account, and some excellent advice for overcoming these barriers is given. (4) Ms. Cook's approach to implementation is straightforward, and if followed, will greatly improve your chances for a successful implementation of an enterprise information architecture. Make no mistake, such an implementation is a daunting task with opportunities to fail lurking in many places. She has obviously encountered a good many implementation problems and gives some great advice on how to overcome them.

   Ms. Cook has made a significant contribution to the body of knowledge of information architecture, and a strong case for the Zachman Framework in this book. She also reinforces the need for a well thought out approach to implementation, and provides clear advice on how to successfully accomplish this.




4. The author's writing style and ability to explain concepts is outstanding! I would love to see her author a more current edition of the book, including additions/modifications made to the Zachman model since this edition. Would also like to see more discussion/explanation about the technology views of the model. The book is excellent reading .. would recommend it for executives, managers, and technical folks alike.



5. Melissa has produced an excellent, non technical book which outlines:
   - the reasons for taking a business led approach to the development of Enterprise Architecture
   - the potential benefits to business of investing in an Enterprise Architecture approach
   - practical steps for doing it and overcoming common roadblocks

   Some readers will no doubt have wanted Melissa to move on to discussing the technical layers, but I feel this would have diluted one of the key messages of her book - that Enterprise Architecture is primarily a business issue focused on the company's core data and fundamental processes. Technology comes a distant second.

   If I have any criticisms, it would be on the suggested representations of the data and process models in the business layers of the architecture framework. My experience working with CEO's and business executives is that they automatically associate the look of these models as being "IT" and mentally switch off.

   In order to effectively market Enterprise Architecture and obtain the executive sponsorship necessary to drive it forward, some other ways of representing this information must be found. Representations that the executive team automatically regard as being in the business domain rather than in IT's. This varies from industry to industry and between organisations, but one example that has wide acceptance is the value chain model. Portraying the ballpark view process classes as a value chain does not corrupt the message and can help achieve the buy-in that is so essential.

   As Melissa rightfully stresses, a successful Architecture strategy requires the business executive taking ownership and ongoing control of these layers of the architecture framework.

5 comments about Practical .NET for Financial Markets (Expert's Voice in .Net).

1. This text is excellent in what it sets out to do and five other reviewers have said so with 5 star ratings. I agree very much with the reviews of Ted Hrudz and Gulli Ellee, in particular - they are well said and spot on. I think I must make a few comments of my own, however. I have managed financial software projects in the last seven years and have experience in developing and implementing capital and money market securities software, and prior experience in implementing equity software, so I have some background and interest in this area.
   
   First the positives: This books succeeds enormously at providing a very good introduction to equity markets and front and back office software development from a .NET development lead, architect or developer perspective. In less than 500 pages the authors manage to provide a very good and reasonably comprehensive/broad tutorial in several aspects of financials as well as .NET and the book makes reasonably easy reading for such technical subjects. Most of the relevant and interesting topics are covered or touched on. The reviewers I mention above itemize most of the .NET and financials topics covered so I will spare you the repetition.
   
   The authors are obviously very knowledgeable in both the securities domain and the .NET architecture and development technologies and issues and convey their knowledge expertly. This book makes an excellent introduction (but ironically advanced/intermediate in several respects) to the domain concepts and requisite architectural/developmental .NET features. Having said that let me add that you will need more than this book if you seriously plan to undertake financial software development with .NET. You may need to supplement your knowledge in both areas with some of these books, depending what you already know or have been involved in:
   
   Securities/Electronic Payments Domain: 1. Securities Operations: A Guide to Trade and Position Management by Michael Simmons; 2. Corporate Actions by Michael Simmons; 3. After the trade is made by David M. Weiss, Revised 2006 Edition; 4. How the US Securities Market Works by Hal McIntyre (2nd Edition); 5. Gobal Securities Operations by Jeremiah O'Connor; 6. Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners by Larry Harris; 7. An Introduction to Financial Technology by Roy S. Freedman. 8. You may also need to understand Secure Electronic Payment Systems (see texts by Weidong Kou, Mostafa Hashem Sherif)
   
   Technology (.NET Framework, Visual Studio & SQL mainly) : Books by some of the best authors such as 1. Juval Lowy and Alex Ferrara (.NET 3.5, SOA/WCF, Web Services, Remoting, Messaging, Application Logging, Threading, Component-based/Distributed Architectures, Application Security Design, etc.); 2. Chris Sells (Windows Forms in VS 2005); 3. David Sceppa, Brian Noyes, Fabrice Marguerie or David Ratz(ADO.NET 2.0/3.5/Data Binding or LINQ); 4. Stephen Walther, Alessandro Gallo, Cristian Darie, Marco Bellinaso (ASP.NET 2.0/3.5 and AJAX); 4. Nick Rozanski (Software Systems Architecture); 6. Itzik Ben Gan (MS SQL 2005-8); 7. Secure Coding against hacker attacks using books by Gary McGraw/Billy Hoffman/Michael Howard such as 'The 19 Deadly Sins Of Software Security'; to explore such topics in greater detail.
   
   I think the author could have added the equivalent VB.NET code for VB developers and architects. That is the main beef I have (and the book is a bit too expensive, buy it online for a rebate. It should have been paper back to reduce the price for readers) but I still thinks it deserves a 5-star ranking . Bravo to Samir Jayaswal and Yogesh Shetty, the authors!



2. The authors' experience building a .NET application for a trading house shows. As a result I learned a little about the domain & saw several well written "how to" .NET examples based on it.
   
   Two negatives might be worth considering before spending a fair amount of money. First, not much (anything?) about building high performance applications. Lots of talk about needing performance in the securities market, little in the way of delivery. Second, the book is based on .NET 1.X "best practices". The chapter on 2.0 reads like a last minute techno-tour.



3. 'Practical .NET for Financial Markets' by Samir Jayaswal is a very specialized book for all financial developers. Laid out over 9 chapters with 500+ pages of detail this is a wonderfully written reference for this niche market.
   
   If you are a .NET developer in the financial industry you owe it to yourself to pick up this great resource!
   
   ***** RECOMMENDED



4. For me, just beginning in this field, this book is a gem.
   It has great explanations of the lingo/structure of the financial markets as well as useful code examples.



5. I have purchased several markets development books and this one beats them all. It has a fantastic overview of the markets, the language is awesome & the detailed instructions on how you can build your system ground up is fabulous. I'd recommend it to everyone from Beginner to a Pro - "A must buy !!"