XML: A Managers Guide (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Information Technology Series)

This book is designed for either consecutive reading of chapters or picking out certain chapters for topics of interest. All chapters after Chapter 1 begin with an Executive Summary section that will help you determine if you should read the entire chapter. You identify relevant topics. The Fast Track paragraph summaries in the margins will also help. This book has eight chapters.

• Chapter 1 ”The Internet Crisis: Exchanging Information. Motivates the need for XML by examining the requirements left unfilled by existing of Internet technologies.

• Chapter 2 ”XML Basics . Introduces fundamental XML concepts at a level that enables you to understand XML applications without going into the details necessary to develop such applications. The Technical Summary section at the end of the chapter reviews basic XML concepts.

• Chapter 3 ” Related Standards. Gives an overview of standards and emerging standards closely related to XML, including an analysis of their benefits and some simple example code. For established standards, it covers practical uses and experiences. It also has the Technical Summary section at the end.

• Chapter 4 ”XML Messaging and Web Services. Introduces the motivation behind and concepts of XML messaging. Compares the different architectures for XML messaging and their respective requirements. Discusses some of the leading initiatives and examines how Web services have evolved into a complete distributed computing paradigm built on top of XML messaging. This chapter assumes familiarity with distributed computing concepts.

• Chapter 5 ”XML Software Infrastructure. Examines the basic types of software infrastructure you will need to deploy XML-based applications. Discusses when different pieces of software are necessary and how to choose among alternatives. Briefly discusses major vendors and products.

• Chapter 6 ”Processes and People. Analyzes the software development processes and staff necessary to deploy XML applications. The first part uses three general application categories to abstract common process and staff requirements. You probably want to concentrate on the category that matches the applications you plan to build. The second part discusses common problems on XML projects and how to prevent them.

• Chapter 7 ”Five XML Applications for Enterprises . Presents an architectural overview of five XML applications important for enterprises and discusses the benefits of using XML in these applications.

• Chapter 8 ”Five XML Applications for Vendors. Presents an architectural overview of five XML applications important for vendors of software products and services and discusses the benefits of using XML in these applications.

As you can see, Chapters 6 through 8 focus on the needs of project managers, enterprise technology planners, and vendor technology planners, respectively. If you don't fall into the primary audience for one of these chapters, you may wish to read only the Executive Summary. If you apply this advice to all chapters, Table Preface-2 suggests which parts of which chapters each target audience should read.

The Glossary at the end of the book defines many of the XML and Internet terms used in the book. Refer to it if you come across an unfamiliar term or simply want to refresh your memory of its definition. The first time a word defined in the Glossary appears, it is set in color . Terms specific to XML appear in italics, while general terms appear in roman typeface.

Table Preface-2.