This is a nuts-and-bolts approach to the task that hardly any DP professional ever discusses: managing the computer room. Nearly all of the emphasis in EDP management texts today is on analysis, programming, information resource management, etc. This book is completely focused on the management of the computer facility itself. It has 13 chapters, roughly classified under data center planning, data center processing, and data center performance. This textbook can be used in junior college courses to help students know what they will face in a computer operations environment, and might be useful for some operations directors who need a primer on their specialty.

The book’s major strength is its inclusion of most of the fundamental issues that should be considered in the management of the EDP center. There are many checklists, diagrams, and sample forms, along with a variety of illustrations of persons at work in EDP operations tasks.

Its major flaw, one that would cause me to hesitate to recommend the book, is that it does not, in general, use contemporary examples, references, or technology descriptions. Since nearly all of the references, appendices, and cases cited are of mid-1970s vintage, this book is essentially a repeat of the first edition [1] and has not given the reader examples of the latest techniques of hardware and software management. In the era from which the author takes most of his references, there were no laser disks, 3380-like vertical disks that hold five gigabytes each, CD ROM, laser printers, national averages for comparing disk and tape performance, etc. The author seems to have ignored even a semblance of newer material, in spite of the availability of many more articles, checklists, and manuals since the first edition. Here is one example among many: Appendices G and E are devoted to typical computer contract clauses and provisions--both early 1970s examples--in spite of the abundance of fresher, more appropriate material. The Bibliography contains almost 20 recommendations, mostly late 1960s and early 1970s vintage, and none more recent than 1978.

The book is set in easy-to-read type and has a non-threatening style of presentation, but one is unmistakably left with the feeling of touring a dusty museum that has a bright facade.