Rating: 
Summary: Not your typical book on software technology
Review: Anyone who has ever written or used software (which includes most of us) will find this a thought-provoking view of what makes the design and management of software systems so complex and costly. And, as an added benefit, it's entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Should be read inside and outside the field of computingl
Review: At one level, this is a wonderful book about engineering, but there is more to it than that. It's about how we behave in the face of technology, especially those of us who are deeply involved in it. The book is important; I hope it is discovered.
Rating:
Summary: Talk about hitting the nail on the head.
Review: I can't stress enough how enjoyable the book was to read. The stories used throughout the book can easily be appreciated by software developers and software hobbyist alike. How refreshing it was to read about the trials and tribulations of real world software development. Perhaps this should be required reading at all universities.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but context free
Review: I feel like slaming this book. It contains a series of lightly connected stories. There is very little real information about what went wrong with the project or anything else. However, it is interesting; I read it in two sittings. My advise is to check it out of the library in a year or two. Don't spend money on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but context free
Review: I feel like slaming this book. It contains a series of lightly connected stories. There is very little real information about what went wrong with the project or anything else. However, it is interesting; I read it in two sittings. My advise is to check it out of the library in a year or two. Don't spend money on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I started reading this book over dinner, couldn't put it down, and ended up finishing it that night. Britcher presents a perspective on computing that is refreshingly different from the usual technocratic point of view. It is nice to see someone who worries about the ethics of this industry for a change, and who doesn't subscribe to the idea that if something is computerized, it must automatically be better. Lot's of thoughtful comments about the state of the industry, software engineering, management, and the psychology and ethics of computing.Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Wrong category.
Review: I worked on the FAA's Advanced Automation System with the author since 1984. (So did several thousand other very bright people.) The author has a few valid points about the difficulties of managing a large hardware, software, and human, integration project. However, if the book had been presented as a fictionalized account or as his personal memoir I would have less difficulty with it. I think that it is misleading to present it as a book with technical merit or validity. It's just one person's view of what happened.
Rating: 
Summary: Lessons Learned
Review: Mr. Britcher has written a fine book that at times is a little difficult to follow where he is going. Having worked on our National Air Traffic Control System myself for nearly 25 years I could relate too many of his stories. Software engineering by it very nature can bog down very quickly in the tools used to arrive at a do-able solution. His best points are about the difficulty of rewriting something writen so well and back in the days when you had to sweat using too much storage. That being the case the system is easy to maintain and has scaled "up" countless times over the last three deades. The system was re-platformed in 1998 onto hardware that offered five nines of reliability. Normally when you place an operating system and applications on the hardware the total system reliability suffers.In case of the system Mr. Britcher cites as the the target for replacement reliability stayed at five nines on a system 24x7x365, as it does at this very instant. I only wish every FAA manager would read Mr. Britchers book because they are about to commit the same mistake they did on AAS only this time it is called ERAM. Large corporations evolve systems, ie Microsoft Windows Operating System built one release on the other. The government on the other hand replaces systems because that becomes a "program" and employes thousands of government workers. Unfortunitly everything Mr. Britcher writes about AAS is about to happen again on ERAM. With us the American tax payers the big losers and a few corporations who get paid no matter what, the big winners. Thank you Mr. Britcher for putting into words what I see happening around me every working day, it is a very timely read. Bill Capo
Rating:
Summary: It's like sharing lunchtime with the staff elder.
Review: The insights and recollections in these essays at first discouraged me - as my naive hopes (that software and standards could tame any problem) were dashed. That discouragement (mostly) disappeared when I realized the author was using "worst cases" to make his points clear. I was left with the realization that reasonable people, working on reasonable projects using reasonable rules can accomplish much.
Rating:
Summary: It's like sharing lunchtime with the staff elder.
Review: The insights and recollections in these essays at first discouraged me - as my naive hopes (that software and standards could tame any problem) were dashed. That discouragement (mostly) disappeared when I realized the author was using "worst cases" to make his points clear. I was left with the realization that reasonable people, working on reasonable projects using reasonable rules can accomplish much.
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