XML has almost as much hype around it as Java had a few years ago. Everyone connected to software needs to understand what XML can and cannot do. Managers especially need to understand the capability, issues and impact as many managers will be presented with XML as the next New New Thing.

This book explains in clear, simple terms what drivers necessitated a technology like XML, what it can do and how that relates to various industry standards and the impact on people and processes. To supplement this there are five example applications each for enterprises and vendors. These discuss, at a top level, various things like the business challenge, the XML benefit, architecture and development process. At less than two hundred pages for the entire book this is very much an overview and guide.

My concern with the content is that as a Manager's Guide it should have made some mention of the impact and issues of using XML. For example what is the impact of XML to existing databases and database based applications used by most organisations? What are the notable issues using or implementing XML based solutions? Why or perhaps more accurately where should businesses adopt XML?

This book has targeted its audience and delivers a message tightly scoped to understanding XML in general terms. For those managers looking for an overview then it presents the fundamentals of XML clearly and concisely with some example uses. For those who want to understand the issues and impact of using XML there is much less to see and therefore correspondingly less value.