Yves Caseau
What we call “Information System” is, on the one hand, a complex structure made of computers and software, but mostly it is an organization that provides the enterprise the processes necessary to deliver value and to optimize this value, from those IT components.
The way an information system works often appears complex if not obscure; hence it seems difficult to relate decisions with effects. The goal of this book is to help devise efficient analyses of the behavior of an information system.
This book is organized around nine chapters which correspond to the key questions that regularly appear when any manager works “with” or “for” the IS organization: cost, value creation, reliability, competitiveness, outsourcing …
Each chapter focuses on one of these questions. It starts with a short fiction which is used as a “case study” to introduce and state the problems or situations that occur in most companies. The core of each chapter provides an analysis based on simple models, which helps the reader come up with the solution pieces that are best suited to her/his company, and, even more importantly, explain why.
This book is intended for any manager who wants to understand better how information systems work. It is also written for IS managers who are sometimes at loss to explain the constraints of their trade. It will also be quite useful to college students who want to learn about information systems.
Yves Caseau is an Executive Vice-President of Bouygues Telecom, a major French cellular operator, where he was the CIO from 2001 to 2006 (Chief Information Officer). Yves Caseau is a research scientist by training and has held a software research position at Tellcordia from 1988 to 1994. A former graduate from the “Ecole Normale Supérieure”, he holds a PhD in Computer Science as well as an MBA from the “College des Ingenieurs”. He is a member of the French National Academy of Technologies.
Great explanations require skill, knowledge, and a sense of story. Dr. Caseau has synthesized his substantial industrial experience as the chief information officer of one of the largest telecoms in France into a story in several parts. Each part follows the adventures of the very attractive Caroline, the chief information officer of an online banking company. The story’s scenes resemble discussions among the executives of virtually any modern corporation. The emotional debates and turf battles will be all too familiar to the US corporate executive, but the topics of discussion are real: why do our systems cost so much, why are our competitors seemingly much more nimble, what should we put offshore, what happens after a disaster occurs that circumvents our contingency plans?
Dr. Caseau follows each installment of the story with a structured discussion of the issues and a methodology for analyzing them. As befits a graduate from the best university in France, he even offers a set of quantitative tools that could be used by the Chief Information Officer or the Chief Executive Officer of a Fortune 500 company. Indeed, I have recommended preprints of the book to executives of US companies for whom I have consulted, always to good effect.
Story, expository analysis, and quantitative analysis. These foundational elements of Dr. Caseau’s book make it unique among software engineering books. The advice is well thought out, widely applicable, and written by a knowledgeable and experienced hand. Read this book slowly and, I promise, you will enjoy it.
Prof. Dennis Shasha
Computer Science Department
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
New York University
USA
