Journal of Medical Systems, VoL 4, No. 1, 1980

Book Review

Computer Effectiveness--Bridging the Management/Technology Gap. C. Warren Axelrod., Lexington, Ma.: Information Resources Press, 1979, 200 pp., 45 figures, 21 tables.

Computer Effectiveness is a book intended to develop a process for making decisions as to which requests for computer services should (or may) be processed on shared- service machines, which should be done on an in-house basis, and whch have suf- ficiently little economic value to the firm to be run at all.

The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, the author defines the terms that he will be using and discusses the various models that describe the possible relationships between average demand and expected turnaround time.

In the second part, he discusses the various cost and value functions that should be considered. He then describes the relationship between turnaround time and sub- mission time as a "value hill," since lines of equal value tend to be convex curves. Based on the value, various jobs may or may not be economical to process.

In the third part, the author presents some examples of the use of the relationships and provides typical curves, besides presenting other uses of the relationships.

Richard P. Covert

83 0148-5598/80/0300-0083503.00/0.�9 1980 Plenum Publishing Corporation