Rating: 
Summary: Recommended reading -- Great reference
Review: The author of this book does not present "the one and only rapid development process". Instead the book presents in great detail over 20 good practices that are known to speed up development. The reader is expected to combine these practices to get a good combination for the current project.The language in the book is smooth and the author really tries to explain in a simple and easy to understand way. I still needed a lot of time to read the book, simply because of the enormous amounts of information in the book. The book includes a lot of statistical data. This is really great to have if you get into an argument with management about if the schedule is achievable. The book is published by Microsoft Press. As I am very far from being a Microsoft fan, I was very sceptical at first. But the book is really great and applicable to all software development projects, including those on UNIX and embedded systems.
Rating:
Summary: Old but classic, still required reading
Review: If you buy this book, keep in mind it was written in 1996. Despite that, it is a great book and still relevant!
Those interested in XP are referred to the author's website. He has published a white paper there.
One request: Mr. McConnell, please update this book! We need an update with more on risk and schedules, agile processes, teamwork, productivity tools, fresh case studies, etc.
Rating:
Summary: STILL top notch advice, 8 years later
Review: It never ceases to amaze me how "hard" it seems to be to deliver a software project in on time... The truth is, it's NOT hard (when you follow the best practices outlined in this book). I've been searching for a book to back up my experience and common sense approach to software development and I found it! Now I'm just depressed that the problems I see happening every day were documented in 1996 as "Classic Mistakes", and they're as common today as ever. This is such a great read for anyone of any level of responsibility for software projects - from the CIO to the Programmer. You CAN develop great software, it CAN be developed on time and on budget, and your developers CAN truly enjoy their jobs during the development process. You just have to commit to doing it right - and this book explains what's "right" and what's "wrong".
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic overview
Review: This book presents a great overview of ways to speed up your application development and to make it appear faster to your customers. My only complaint is that he doesn't go deep enough in to some areas. All in all, the Best Practices section at the end of the book alone is worth 5 stars and the cover price. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Rapid Development makes a great desktop reference
Review: Managing the dynamics of software scope, resources, and schedule deadlines; this book is a must have for almost any type of application delivery project. Mr. McConnell outlines a variety of project methodologies and 'Best Practice' processes that are a good match to certain project conditions, and provides key insights to making good decisions during the software delivery lifecycle, and constructing/executing good communication plans during the course of your projects.
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Summary: Professional software manager's bible
Review: The book provides an anatomy of the software development cycle. It covers both the the business process and suprisingly the psycological process. It describes and categorizes 36 mistakes that can result in failure to meet the initial development goals.
The overall message of the book is quite Zen (to go faster, you must go slower). It describes in detail the value adding activities that devlopers are often encouraged to skip for expedience that later will cost the project dearly. Lots of data from project case studies is provided to back-up the arguments. At the end of the book a taxonomy of a 100 best practices is described with an executive summary of the benefits, risks and trade-offs for easy reference.
Reading this book will prepare you to manage projects, and I would argue should be required reading. An added bonus is that the author's excellent writing style makes this book quite a page turner.
Rating:
Summary: THE Source Book for Software Project Planning & Management
Review: Those who have worked in the software industry are all too aware of the impacts of poor project planning and management endemic to their field: long hours of overtime, burnout, poor and difficult-to-revise code, etc. Even those outside the industry itself suffer from delayed product delivery, excessive bugs, and lack of product functionality due to shortcomings in project management. Rapid Development by Steve McConnell is the solution!
This isn't a book about how to program but rather how to plan to program and how to manage the tasks of development during programming. McConnell identifies some of the worst and most common mistakes made in project planning and describes their impact: ambitious deadlines cause high stress, coding errors, and usually cause the project to be completed way behind schedule; lack of communications between involved parties (users, managers, testers, developers etc.) leads to unrealistic expectations and missed goals; lack of proper planning and "coding like hell" lead to unmaintanable software, increased product bugs, etc.
Although to many software developers it may sound like McConnell is simply preaching to the choir, he offers solutions to each pitfall, many in the form of "best practices" with thorough analysis as to the appropriate use and any downsides of each. McConnell speaks from experience, having worked in development, management, and as a consultant for firms including Microsoft. Best of all, most of his solutions and practices he offers are simple to implement and pay off enormously over the lifetime of a project.
If more software companies followed the advice of McConnell's excellent book, software development might be a much more enjoyable profession, companies would save both time and money, and even the general public would be more satisfied with computer software whose headaches all too often stem from the poor development practices of the industry.
Rating:
Summary: IT Management Must
Review: I found this book to be enlightening on so many issues. I bought it thinking that it was touting a new methodolgy that would save the world from failing IT projects and found that it was a general summary of many things that will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your IT team. It is very insightful and an overall good read.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for every software professional
Review: I'm a big fan of eXtreme Programming (XP) so I was particularly interested in reading this book to see if I could pick up some ideas and concepts different from that of XP. I was quite suprised to see many of the concepts and best practices McConnell presents in this book are very consistent with XP's practices. I also like how McConnell gives lots of references for his claims. He gives plenty of convincing data and supporting arguments to show what many of us already know yet many managers refuse to believe. Things like mandatory overtime can make productivity go down, the importance of moral, why managers can't control all the variables of a SW project (cost, schedule, & product). Overall this book is a great read and I really believe if everyone followed this book's best practices, especially 40 hour work week and honest scheduling, the entire SW industry would be much better than it is today.
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