EPSScentral Whats New

What's New - the EPSScentral Reader

9 January 2004

The EPSScentral Reader is brought to you, in part, by Ariel PCS.
EPSScentral LLC News Big changes coming on February 1, 2004!	Greetings, and a Happy New Year to subscribers of the EPSScentral Reader and visitors to EPSScentral.com. A number of exciting changes are taking place at EPSScentral LLC. On February 1, 2004 EPSScentral will divide its web presence into two sites: epsscentral.INFO and epsscentral.COM. The familiar content, newsletter, PCD contents, and the like - the knowledge site that you have enjoyed for years that evolved from pcd-innovations, epss.com, and epssinfosite.com - will become www.epsscentral.info. It will contain the same familiar content, but in a new content/knowledge management framework. You will enjoy many improvements in usability, searching-and-retrieving, downloading/uploading resources, and making connections. The site will remain a free resource for performance support and related disciplines for the one million monthly visitors worldwide . The second site - www.epsscentral.com - will be the main business site for EPSScentral LLC. We have been busy growing EPSScentral as a consulting service, product company, and knowledge/publishing service. The growth has been exciting, and it is time to separate the business function from the legacy knowledge portal that you have come to enjoy over the years. So on February 1, 2004, several changes will be evident: (1) When you navigate to epsscentral.com, you will be directed to the site of interest, epsscentral.INFO or epsscentral.COM; (2) we will discontinue use of the legacy epssinfosite domain and the pcd-innovations domain. You will be routed to the EPSScentral family of sites via epsscentral domains or the legacy epss.com domain; (3) The EPSScentral Reader, our occasional newsletter, will be published every second week through March, 2004, then increase to a weekly reader starting in April, 2004. Thank you for your continued interest and support, and watch for the new EPSScentral family of sites in February!
2003 PCD Award See the winning submission! Links are provided here to the online content.	Category 1: Traditional EPSS: IRS e-Learning Development Resource Center developed for the Internal Revenue Service by Vertex Solutions, Inc., of Washington, DC. (Contact: Suzanne B Brown@irs.gov, 202-283-9102). Category 2: PCD Solutions: Sarbanes-Oxley Governance & Compliance Framework, developed by Issues Central of Toronto, Canada, using the ProCarta engine from Procarta, Inc., also of Toronto (Contact: cathyconnally@issuescentral.com, 416-722-1605). ASC Performance Support Wizards, developed for the Internal Revenue Service by Epiance, Inc., of Herndon, VA (Contact: mary.a.weeks@irs.gov, 202-283-9266) Category 3: Extraordinary PCD Tools: Auxilium™ Performance Builder, by Auxilium Performance Group, Inc., Rockland, MA (Contact: bhauserman@auxiliumpg.com, 877-867-8988 x245, www.auxiliumpg.com). Epiplex, by Epiance, Inc., of Herndon, VA (Contact: jsalimbene@epiance.com, 703-464-0707 x203, www.epiance.com). Knowledge Stream by Upstream Development, LLC, of Milwaukee, WI (Contact: jay@upstreamdev.com, 414-228-8346, www.upstreamdev.com). ProCarta by ProCarta, Inc., of Toronto, ON, Canada (Contact: charley.best@procarta.com" charley.best@procarta.com, 416-597-8400 Ext 2231
INTERESTING PERFORMANCE SUPPORT TOOLS AND SYSTEMS
epiplex™ version 4.2 released! Contact EPSScentral for further information on epiplex™.	Version 4.2 of the award-winning software suite has been released! epiplex™ enables business performance by capturing, expressing, managing, and growing business processes, then producing an arsenal of assets that enable the workers - the business performers - to achieve business outcomes with a minimum of training, learning, and support. epiplex's core capability is capture, which is the ability to observe and gather the key elements of performer actions as they accomplish work in the computer applications that support the organization. Version 4.2 features Remote Capture and Analyzer, providing organizations with the ability to aggregate user workflows across the enterprise, then auto-analyze them for business process optimization and benchmarking. Contact info@epsscentral.com for further information on epiplex™.
Nooface	The purpose of this site is to support the exchange of ideas about next-generation user interfaces, focusing on approaches that go beyond the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointing Device) method on which most current user interfaces are based. The goal is to promote out-of-the-box thinking on how user interfaces might evolve to accommodate new classes of users and devices outside of the traditional PC domain.
BOOKS	This link takes you to the EPSScentral bibliography.
Recent books	A new book by Donald Norman: Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. A new idea from the O'Reilly series...or is it? Perhaps a Packaged Composite Application is another way to say EPSS: Packaged Composite Applications Gary Dickelman's compendium of performance-centered design articles from Performance Improvement: EPSS Revisited
Performance XPress	The January 2004 issue of Performance XPress is now available from the International Society for Performance Improvement! Questions or comments should be directed to Gary Dickelman at EPSScentral or April Davis, ISPI's Director of Periodicals at april@ispi.org.
INNOVATION	This is a new section of the EPSScentral Reader and web site devoted to the general topic of innovation - in business, organizations, and content domains. Innovation is at the root of performance, hence the ideas presented in these articles are seeds for PCD.
Fast Company	If He's So Smart...Steve Jobs, Apple, and the Limits of Innovation The battle over digital music is just another verse in Apple's sad song: This astonishingly imaginative company keeps getting muscled out of markets it creates. So what does Apple have to tell us about innovation? Carleen Hawn Wireless in San Diego For a view of how wireless telecom will change the way we work and live, head to San Diego--where everyone from pharmacists to real-estate brokers is now coming unplugged. Alison Overholt Help Wanted: a Chief Knowledge Officer For your company to be successful, you've got to know when to hold and when to fold--and you need a CKO to deal it to you straight. Lester Thurow
The Innovation Network	New World Innovation “There is truly nothing more risky than not innovating, with the possible exception of confusing innovation with something that fails to create value.” -- Ruth Ann Hattori & Joyce Wycoff “InnovationDNA” Training & DevelopmentMagazine
USABILITY	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox	Ten Steps for Cleaning Up Information Pollution Better prioritization, fewer interruptions, and concentrated information that's easy to find and manage helps people become more productive and stop wasting their colleagues' time. Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003 Sites are getting better at using minimalist design, maintaining archives, and offering comprehensive services. However, these advances entail their own usability problems, as several prominent mistakes from 2003 show.
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
Choosing the Right CMS: A Few Pointers	Deciding on a content management system (CMS) to help your organization streamline business processes and aid in compliance efforts can be a mind-boggling job. And while looking at CMS vendors would seem the good first step, there's a little more to it than perusing a few brochures and talking to a couple of sales folks. Here are a few tips from the experts that may help.
Slash / Slashdot	Slashcode is the site for All Things Slash. Slash is the source code and database that was originally used to create Slashdot, and has now been released under the GNU General Public License. It is a bona fide Open Source / Free Software project. Use this site to get the Slash source, read the latest Slash news, and participate in Slash discussions. Slashcode is run by the good folks at OSDN, but like all good open source projects, depends on the community. Thanks for your continued support, and let us know what we can do to make the site better.
Cooper Interaction Design Newsletter	Features Talk, but Behaviors Close What’s a feature? Features are often the currency of software development and marketing, yet few people can agree on what exactly defines a feature. The term can be used to describe a particular piece of functionality, an entire set of functionality, a capability, or sometimes even a possibility. The experts are no help. Typical is webopedia.com, which goes out on a limb by stating that a feature is, “a notable property of a device or software application.”
ONLINE LEARNING	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
Internet Time Blog	What do Jay Cross and the Internet Time Blog have to say these days?
The new Training Magazine	Online Learning and Training magazines are now one.
Learning & Training Innovations	Cover Story The Business of Learning Dr. Imelda Idar reveals how she transformed a government agency from an outdated paper-bound system to an automated online training business. The first step was forming a vision team to build a solid business case and achieve buy-in.
e-Magazines from the Association for Computing Machinery	Queue: Latest computing trends Ubiquity: IT opinion magazine and forum TechNews: News Gathering Service for IT Professionals eLearn: Distance learning magazine MemberNet: Your Key to the World of ACM...and Beyond Computers in Entertainment: New ACM online magazine
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
KM World News	Forming solutions for compliance Open Text enhances Livelink eForms [Posted 1/7] Form management for PeopleSoft CreateForm introduces new product [Posted 1/7] Making friends with search YourAmigo upgrades enterprise offering [Posted 1/7] T he CRM bone’s connected to the . . . Kana to acquire Hipbone [Posted 1/5] Visualize procurement costs Antarctica and ePlus partner [Posted 1/5] The name game Buoy5 changes to Integrify [Posted 1/5]
INTRANETS, PORTALS, AND THE WEB	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
Intranet Design Journal	Collaboration is King with Workshare 3 With Workshare 3, clients who use Microsoft Office products along with Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Domino Server gain an easy way to send documents for review, then collect the changes. A Stocking Stuffer for Content Creators Adobe has packaged its indispensable design apps into an suite of tools dubbed Adobe Creative Suite. It's not only a tremendous price bargain, but the tools work together — and work in team environments — in ways that are sure to appeal to intranet pros. When is Web Content Management Right for an Intranet? When it comes to software for maintaining your intranet, you can choose between a Web content manager and portal software. The right choice depends on exactly what type of intranet you want to build and what type of information you want available to your users.
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION	A new category on EPSScentral.
EAI Journal	Features Out With the Old, in With the New With all that’s at stake in any system implementation, cutover requirements need to be given much thought early on. By Ira Gershkoff Mainframe Web Services: Turning Big Iron Into Gold This article explores how Web services can extend returns from mainframe applications. By Michael Blank & Chris Pottinger The Next Wave: SOA Adapters Needed One of the largest holes in the new world of service-oriented integration is the lack of adapters that support services. By David Linthicum Renaissance Man: BAM From Simple to Rocket Science, Part I This months’ column, the first of a two-part series, reinterprets the five styles of potential BAM deployments. By David McCoy Business Activity Monitoring: The End-Game of the Real-Time Enterprise The promise of the real-time enterprise (RTE) is compelling, but what will it take to operate effectively in real-time? By Mo Klein and Francois Besson Beyond EAI: Unifying the Disconnected Enterprise You need to unify your data and fix your data problems before an EAI, BI, or Web services strategy can be successful. By Tim Stefanini
CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, PRESENTATIONS, ETC.	IUI (Intelligent User Interfaces) January 13-16, 2004 Island of Madeira, Portugal Training/Online Learning March 1 - 3, 2003 Atlanta CHI 2004 April 24-29 Vienna, Austria. WWW2004 May 17-22, 2004 New York City ICSE2004 May 23-28, 2004 Edinburgh, Scotland UPA 2004 June 7 - 11, 2004 Minneapolis Agile Development Conference 2004 June 23 - 26 2004 Salt Lake City, Utah Hypertext 2004 August 9-13, 2004 University of California, Santa Cruz Training/Online Learning 2004 October 11-13, 2004 San Francisco, CA HCI 2005 July 22-27, 2005 Las Vegas, NV Tufte Seminars
Jupitermedia Events	Conferences covering a range of topics, including Instant Messaging, Voice XML, Search Engines, Enterprise Portals, Ultrawideband, and more.
REPORTS and STUDIES
Deriving Enterprise-Based Measures Using the Balanced Scorecard and Goal-Driven Measurement Techniques	Abstract: Change is a natural, although not always welcome, part of product line development. The changes may be initiated to correct, improve, or extend assets or products. Since no asset is independent of all other assets, changes to one asset often require corresponding changes in other assets. And changes to assets propagate to affect all the products using those assets. Many of the practices of a successful product line initiate, manage, or consume these changes. Both conceptual techniques and software tools are available to assist in the management of these changes. The focus of this technical report is how evolutionary changes affect the various types of assets in a software product line. Change can be anticipated and managed, or it can be unanticipated and potentially disruptive. This technical report defines a few basic evolution concepts and then discusses those product line practices that initiate, anticipate, control, and direct the evolution. Conceptual and automated techniques that support these practices are also presented.
Demonstrating the Impact and Benefits of CMMI®: An Update and Preliminary Results	There is a widespread demand for evidence about the impact and benefits of process improvement based on Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI®) models. Much has been documented about the practice of CMM®-based process improvement and its value for the development and maintenance of software and software-intensive systems; however, the existing information is sometimes outdated and there are increasing calls for evidence directly based on CMMI experience. This special report presents selected results from 12 case studies drawn from 11 organizations. While still limited, the case studies provide credible evidence that CMMI-based process improvement can help organizations achieve better project performance and produce higher quality products. The report also describes plans for gathering further evidence from organizations using CMMI models.

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