Rating: 
Summary: Restating the obvious
Review: I bought this book based on the recommendation of a coworker , who had the book recommended to him as well. Sadly I did not see eye to eye with him on this. The book was filled with 500 pages of obvious strategies and pitfalls that people should already know from common sense. Topics like leaving time cushions for error, don't higher people to work with people that dislike each other, etc.... I returned the book after two days (I did get though the whole book). The only partially useful information was in the last section of the book (about 150+ pages), where he went over more concrete theories. I'm hoping that his other great book "Code Complete" is a much better "great book" then this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Destroyed all misconceptions of the development process
Review: This book is *AMAZING*. After years of "code-like-hell" development and amazingly frustrating bugs related to design flaws, I finally decided to pick up a book on the development process geared towards getting the project done and out the door.After digging around numerous sites, reading literally hundreds of reviews, and soliciting the opinions of fellow developers, I finally settled on ordering "Rapid Development" and one of the other books by the same author, "Code Complete". All I can say is "holy cow". "Rapid Development" was delivered to my door around 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. I picked it up and right away read chapter 3 - "Classic Mistakes". The scenario presented in the chapter just about blew my mind; it detailed every issue I have ever come across in the development process that has stalled or killed a project. It was also well written with a dry, witty humor; a definate must for any technical book about typically dry subjects. After reading that one chapter, I flipped back to the beginning of the book and read it all the way through. I didn't put the book down until midnight, and after I had, there were all sorts of ideas screaming through my head I could apply to my current engagements. Managers and non-technical people will greatly benefit from this book too. Have you ever that manager who stands over your shoulder asking you how it's going, why you're doing something a certain way, or what's taking the project so long? Give this book to your manager and tell him to read Chapter 11, "Motivaton". Chapters 3 and 11 provided the proper explanations for the constant recurrance of certain software project issues ("Why are the programmers working twelve hours a day and the project never seems to get any closer to completion?" "What exactly is so hard about adding this one feature to the program that was never accounted for in the first place?" "If those programmers are such geniuses, why won't they share code or use each other libraries?") to persuade my company to buy this book for all developers and technical managers. Never has a technical book provided me with so much insight and so much open-ended, thought-provoking detail. I was able to apply about a third of the principles described to about 90% of all the projects i've ever worked on without thinking for more then a minute or two. The other two thirds proved themselves when digging deeper into the various issues. Blah. What a burst of hot air. I've personally never EVER written a review for a book (never enough time), but I just HAD to stop and give five stars to this one. BUY THIS BOOK. AND BUY IT FOR YOUR MANAGERS. NOW.(...)I am THAT confident that it provide at least one improvement to the way you develop software, if not many.
Rating:
Summary: Buy an extra copy (because yours will be "borrowed")
Review: I am on my 2nd copy of Rapid Development. This book will disappear often from your bookshelves because people can't get enough of it. It really explains all the pratfalls that can occur during a project and how to avoid them. It also gives you a good idea on how to structure a methodology for your project on criteria that is important to your project.
Rating:
Summary: Can't put it down
Review: I bought this book a couple of weeks ago and have been glued to it ever since. It's often very humorous (in a natural way) and reading it feels somewhat what I imagine the way Neo felt when getting his brain loaded with how to Kung Fu. I feel like my brain is getting bigger and that I have so much more power now over the software as opposed to it having power over me. For $25 you will get the best investment in yourself and your software project abilities available. Just read the other reviews too and you will realize this is so.
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for the software professional
Review: Everyone involved in software development should read this excellent book. I got my chance 2-3 years back, when I was idle between contracts, and I found it to be a real eye-opener. One point that sticks in my mind is this: "rapid development" is something which only an excellent software organization can do. To get there, the organization must get to "good" first. And, even before that, the organization must get to "fair." To say that again in another way, common sense will tell you that before your organization can get to "good," it has to stop making all the common software errors described in this book (feature creep, architectural gold-plating, lack of unit testing, and so on.) Another very memorable thought is conceiving of every software schedule that becomes more accurate with time -- because, as time goes on, presumably you understand more exactly what you are doing. Thus you might initially say "Customer Assistance Program" -- 1 or 2 years. Then you write a document which describes it in detail, and estimate it at 14-19 months. Then you architect it, and get a better estimate. This is a very pragmatic approach! Highest recommendation!
Rating:
Summary: Thorough, broad, in depth coverage of software engineering
Review: The man can write. Who else can make a discussion of building for loops (Code Complete) interesting? The book is awesome. I read it cover to cover in a week (647 pages), I couldnt put it down. If it was twice the size and covered even more I'd be even happier. If you are a manager this book can be of great value to you. Chances are there are a few methods you are unaware of that will be of great value to you. Great list of references for further reading (I made a list of 20 books to look at).
Rating:
Summary: A Must for Development Managers & Leads
Review: This book is a must for development managers (those who manage software development projects)! Read it cover to cover and highlight the important summary paragraphs throughout the book for easy reference later. If you're a senior manager, then read it and get all of your development managers a copy for reference. This is also great for your technical leads so that they can begin to understand the concepts behind running great software projects.
Rating:
Summary: Must read
Review: McConnell provides the roadmap for ALL development best practises in this gem. From Inspections to schedule estimation, Requirements to prototyping, Rapid Dev to JAD, its all in there. Its my bible for all my work as a project manager. Pick it up
Rating:
Summary: Surprised
Review: For the past few years I have been working as an in house system developer for a major communications company. Recently I decided to delve into project management fundamentals because I may want to lean in that direction in the near future. Sooo...I ordered this book because of rave reviews on Amazon. Let me just say that although I haven't read through every best practice in the book's last section, this is the best book on software development I have ever read by far. I have never had the pleasure of working on a well managed project. I don't know where the company I work for gets it's software project managers but they don't seem to spend any time learning project management. This book has me on my way back to sanity and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: This book is all it says in the reviews above. Fantastic.
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