Rating: 
Summary: Encapsulates the worst part of being a software engineer..
Review: ..you have to read and listen to pedantic and generally useless stuff like this. There are some useful bits here and there, but overall this book is repetitive, far out of date, and often just wrong-headed.The really important aspects of this book could easily be condensed into a few chapters, but then you would have to add so much back to get to the level a contemporary software engineer would need to begin to know how to do his or her job properly. Their are some interesting discussions, for example on metrics, formal methods, and testing. But perhaps I liked these in comparison because they actually talked about real things that someone could actually do. The rest of it reminded me of listening to someone get up in a meeting and talk endlessly about TQM and business reengineering and so on; you know that the VP is going to love it, but when it comes to actually implementing it, that guy is the last person you want to actually have on your team. Basically, the author doesn't seem to have a clue about how software engineering is actually done in 2001. There is far more in the text talking about completely outdated structured design techinques then there is about OO design, for example. What there is in OO design and analysis seems like filler, or stuff that was made up because it sounded good. For example, in the chapter I'm reading right now, Pressman describes "THE [emphasis mine] system design process." Apparantly, this process involves among other things, "allocating subsystems to processors and tasks." In the world of Application servers, object brokers and so on, isn't this really an implementation detail? Anyway, its a lot of blah blah blah, and a lot of incorrect or barely correct details; for example, unit testing is described as primarily a white box activity, when in fact in appraoches like XP, unit testing is largely black box. Actually, there is no discusion of agile softwarte development techniques at all. Design Patterns get a page and a half, whereas DFDs (who the hell uses these anymore?) get like 30 pages. Often, the exact same material is presented in two differnt places in the book. For example, the treament of Mayer's modularity principles appears almost verbatim the same in chapters 13 and 20, expect for some reason, its formatted differently! Overall, the impression is exactly like that I had of my high school civics text book, i.e. they must be charging by the pound. And they are charging filet prices for dog food. Certainly not worth the dollar amount) McGraw Hill is charging. Unconscionable, when I can buy Knuth's entire set for (dollar amount). Pressman is not a bad writer, but he needs to be edited and this book need a ground up rewrite. It would also be helpful if he had experts or real practioners involved in the recreation of the book. Maybe I'm just bitter because I have to read it for a class, but this pracitioner has better things to do! Don't buy this book unless someone has required you to, and if they do, complain! (Do you get the idea I didn't care for the book?)
Rating: 
Summary: An indispensable reference.
Review: An industry standard that no software professional can claim to be well-read without. I was pleased to see (finally) the addition of two chapters on Formal Methods in Software Engineering. This was an unfortunate omission in the third edition that is now corrected. The price is a bit overinflated, as with most texts on the subject. Makes for an excellent companion, when compared and contrasted with other current industry texts.
Rating:
Summary: The best SE book on the market
Review: As a practicing Software Engineer, I find this book to be invaluable. It has served as a great reference for all the projects that I have worked on. Each chapter builds on the previous, and the information is easy to read and understand. Every person who develops software should have this book.
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Summary: Must addition to any Software Engineers Desktop
Review: As a practioner of Software Engineering, this is one of best books in print. I initially purchased the book as requisite for my Master Program in SE. Since then, I have purchased revised copy of book for my desktop. Book provides detailed information on software engineering practices, guiding the reader through the processes, providing different views from many of industry leaders in Software Engineering. His references alone make the book a must for the desktop. Dr. Pressman is definitely leader, guide and advocate in promoting SE
Rating: 
Summary: Errors on samples
Review: Chapter 18. 18.3.3. The diferents methods to calculate V(G) give diferents results. On fig. 18.9 there are 13 nodes and the solution to V(G) on prior page consider 14. The samples in this chapter has many errors.
Rating:
Summary: Awful book
Review: Horribly organized with too many fillers.
Too many meaningless phrases only makes sentences longer making meanings less understandable.
The size of the book would've been half if useless phrases were not used too much.
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Summary: People who wrote bad reviews dont know anything about SE
Review: I am a J2EE Architect also doing my MS. I've have read a number of books and also taken a some certification exams on the software engineering. Most of the people who have complained about this book here are students who obviously crammed and did not get anything out of the book. I'm using this a textbook for one of my classes; intitially after reading the reviews here I also had an extremely negative view. Yeah its heavy reading, 32 chapters 800+ pages, so? The material although somewhat dry is still very relevant to software engineering. The only thing lacking is case studies and sample documents - of the Project Plan, Software Requirements Specification, Software Design Specification, and Software Test Plan - which should be included in the CD. The bottom line is, to get a better idea of SE you must read this book and do the corresponding SE documentation side by side, within the development cycle of a project. The book is good, but should be supplemented with more practical material.
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Summary: Attack of the Yakkety-Yak
Review: I am a mature,second-degree computer science student at a Canadian university and have found this book to be an unmitigated disaster. There are many strategic errors that make this book unsuitable for undergraduates; let's examine them in turn. Firstly, this book is wildly verbose. You would think after reading this book that the author got paid by the word. It seems that often the authour used 100 words to say something when only 5 would do. All to frequently, instead of just stating a definition,the author will quote extensively one of the industry's 'patron saints' to discuss it at length. Very bad. There are far too many quotes. In addition,there is a love of three-letter acronyms. Every chapter is crammed with terms to learn. If you're the type of person who loves to use technical terms to impress people, this is your book. If you are just like the rest of us and want to learn how to engineer software, avoid this book like the plague. Finally,this book doesn't employ good teaching style. In the body of the text, concrete examples are rarely given by the author, yet he asks for such examples in his exercises ! He has written far too general a nook. This goes against the principle of 'tell then test' comprehension. Professors: PLEASE avoid this book !
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Summary: All about managing software engineering projects.
Review: I am a software project manager and owns a few books on both the managerial and technical aspects of software engineering. This book will not give you a specific process to follow for your software engineering projects and needs. It will not give you technical solutions to common software engineering technical problems either. This book is about the "art" of software engineering and what methods, tools and techniques exist today to achieve success in managing software engineering projects. I believe the people giving bad reviews were actually looking for something either more technical or more specific to a process. The book is clearly written. The format is very effective and the information is presented well (icons for advice, quotes, recommendations...). The layout is very convenient and I think there is a lot of information available. I agree that it is a little too pricey and maybe missing a few areas of software engineering. But the foundation are there.
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Summary: Simply the best overview of current SE practice
Review: I bought the 2nd edition of this book over 12 years ago. The fact that I've now bought three versions of the book over that period and keep all of them on my bookshelf says a lot about how useful I find it in my day job as a software designer/consultant and project manager. I've got a big collection of books on SE but this is the one I go to first for a quick introduction to some new (or even old!) technique. I doubt if it would be a good college book but for a practicing engineer who wants a book that keeps pace with trends while remembering the best of the past this is the one. Like the title says its a practitioner's book, one to be used every day not just to pass an exam.
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