Software Engineering: Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition

Rating:
Summary: ... and Practice???
Review: Part of my work involves managing software projects, and leading teams of programmers and software engineers. I recently started my private holy grail search: I NEED to find a book that would advance my subordinates from programmers to leaders; from code-writers to application-makers. For this purpose, during the past year I have read many books - mostly software engineering ones.
As most SW engineers in my teams are university graduates, they already possess some theoretical knowledge in software enginering. What they lack is the know-how of translating theory into practice. Such wisdom is normally obtained after years and years of work (if at all). A good book enabling the engineer to climb faster up the learning curve and shorten this learning period would be invaluable to me.

Most SW engineering books teach theory, not practice. Thus, I approached this book named "Software Engineering: Principles AND PRACTICE " with great expectations. In short - I was very disappointed.
Not that it's a bad book. It is well written, and the theoretical part may serve well as a textbook, probably even aiding students to pass their SW engineering 101 course. However, I found the practical part of the book very lacking: No real tips. No real insights. Nothing really bright here. Definitely not something that would help somebody write better applications, produce high quality products on time, and eventually advance his/her career. NOT WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR.

Rating:
Summary: Good coverage on principles and the of software engineering.
Review: This is one of the better academic books I've seen in this area. It has the basic stuff you'd expect, but the author also presents very good discussions on writing software specs. The appendix includes some IEEE standards on software documentation. A good book especially for software professionals and technical managers.

The section on software maintenance is excellent and would be a good (and not-too-technical) resource for product managers, marketing managers, project managers, and those involved with the software maintenance process -- something more complex and difficult than we usually think.

Rating:
Summary: Good coverage on principles and the of software engineering.
Review: This is one of the better academic books I've seen in this area. It has the basic stuff you'd expect, but the author also presents very good discussions on writing software specs. The appendix includes some IEEE standards on software documentation. A good book especially for software professionals and technical managers.

The section on software maintenance is excellent and would be a good (and not-too-technical) resource for product managers, marketing managers, project managers, and those involved with the software maintenance process -- something more complex and difficult than we usually think.