Bruce Tate's book "From Java to Ruby" is one of the few books on programming languages written for the manager. It provides a strategic view of how to position Ruby within the enterprise and offers insights on helping Ruby "cross the chasm" and become a mainstream language.  

Top five messages:

Don't use a Bofors gun to kill an ant: I cannot  agree more. Plenty of people out there refuse to look beyond J2EE and .NET when it comes to web application development. Bruce argues " Don't use Java when all you want you application to do is to babysit a database". Use Java when you have complex, heavy duty entreprise computing problems to solve.


Ruby's biggest selling point is productivity: Ruby can be 5 to 10 times more productive than Java for certain types of applications.


There is more to productivity than meets the eye: Increased programmer productivity acts as a lever that brings gains in project management, faster time to market, lower usability risk (due to faster iterations) and lesser ramp up time.


Ruby is more than just a scripting language: Ruby even when combined with Rails might fall well short of a full fledged J2EE platform, but it much more than just a scripting language. Rails brings sufficient ammunition to solve enterprise integration tasks that are well out of scope of a 'scripting language'.


Politics is as important for selling as technology: Even when the 'hard numbers' business case is clearly favourable a new technology or language is likely to loose out politically. The key challenge that Ruby will need to overcome is political than technical. "Nobody got fired for buying IBM" and so the adage goes.