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.
Rating: 
Summary: People who wrote bad reviews dont know anything about SE
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Toolchest for Real-world Software projects
Review: I had the 3rd edition many years ago for a course I took. At the time I was a junior programmer and did not see the usefulness for all the management and other information in the book.
Now that I'm a software development lead, I have dusted off the book. It has been a god-send. In one volume is most of the information one needs to gather requirements, price, design, build, test and deploy great software. It is not dogmatic, which may be why it is not more popular. Pressman lays the necessary truths for each step of software development, then gives the reader choices for how to perform the tasks.
The book cites great sources, and is easy to read. Quite a bargin, considering its wide-range and utilitarian nature.
I recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Potentially Good Reference; Not for Pedagogy
Review: I have been a software development "practitioner" for fifteen years. I decided to take a graduate class in software engineering to brush up on my skills and this was the textbook used. There is quite a bit in this book that applies to development environments ten to fifteen years ago and relatively little that applies to current trends. Much of the material is also presented "shotgun manner" where many techniques from different sources are just thrown out without much attempt at comparison. I came away with a worse impression of "software engineering" as a discipline than when I started. I do think this text could be used as a handy encyclopedia: a starting point to find a definition or two and a jumping point for further research on a particular topic.
Rating: 
Summary: some good sections, but a lot of filler and fluff
Review: I just finished using this book for a software engineering course. This book does have some good information but it is surrounded by a lot of filler. The length could easily be reduced by 40% without losing anything. What I disliked:
1. Too many useless quotes that give no valuable information. Many of the quotes just seemed useless IT/IS filler with buzzword like comments. This isn't a book I would keep as a reference but its target audience seems to be a classroom environment. 2. Excessive organization. The author seems to give a general overview, then medium detailed discussion, and then an in depth discussion. The text could benefit from shortened general overiews and move directly to the in depth discussion of a topic. The length of the book could be reduced while still keeping useful and valueable content. 3. Over complicated language. Some of the language is unnecessarily complicated. I have the same feelings on this as a previous reviewer (about terminology and syllable length etc). 4. Too IT/IS/MIS based. This is more of a personal preference but the text just seemed a little watered down for people who aren't in computer science. What I liked:
1. Analysis sections. I felt these were really useful and practical. Easy to follow information. 2. Testing sections. The discussion of different kinds of testing methodologies was helpful though I would have liked it to be more technical. 3. OO sections. Just some really good information here but again I would have liked it to be more technical My overall impression of the book is that there is definately some good information but you have to sort through a lot of fluff to get to it.
Rating:
Summary: Underwhelming book
Review: I used this text in a software engineering course as an undergraduate. I think the problems with this book are two-fold. First, Pressman tries to cover too much and ends up covering nothing very well. The chapters on client/server architecture, realtime software engineering, and documentation are particularly weak. In many places, Pressman "discusses" an SE topic by citing a bunch of articles and books, thus avoiding the troubling task of having to actually present content. The second main problem with this book is that it is addressed to practitioners, as the subtitle suggests, not students. Pressman almost never addresses questions that start with "why", focusing instead on questions that start with "how". He answers questions like "How do I do a requirements analysis", not "why should I worry about requirements?" or "Why should I prefer cleanroom methods over other alternatives?" These are questions that students will want answers to, but software professionals probably already understand at least intuitively. If you are a professional developer, then you might find Pressman to be a moderately useful reference. If you are a student, forget it. Find another book. If you are doing anything OO-centric, run immediately and buy "Design Patterns" by Gamma, Helm, Johnson, Vlissides. If you are working on some other type of project, like a web or database project, I am sure you can find a better book than Pressman. The verdict: Unless you like shelling out money for mediocre books, avoid this one.
Rating:
Summary: Broad scope & highly usable content.
Review: I've owned this book a long time, and it remains a favorite. Pressman covers a wide range of engineering topics, starting from considering 'software engineering' as a true discipline, on to various team approaches, ways of acquiring project requirements, issues of quality control, and more. It is a solid and comprehensive overview of the issues a software engineer will face. One shortcoming of the book are that it is not as up-to-date on some topics as one would like, such as "extreme programming" and new cost estimation techniques. Additionally, you may find yourself shopping for additional books on specific topics, as the book does not treat all in equal depth. However, it is the best overall survey of software engineering I have found. I would recommend this both for the academic student, and the student of one's profession.
Rating:
Summary: Very Dry, lacks major examples
Review: The book is extremely dry and is very wordy. There is a lot of information present and the subject is rather dry to begin with, but this book still falls short. It also lacks examples of major documentation (requirements definition, requirements specifcation, etc.)
Rating:
Summary: Very Dry, lacks major examples
Review: The book is extremely dry and is very wordy. There is a lot of information present and the subject is rather dry to begin with, but this book still falls short. It also lacks examples of major documentation (requirements definition, requirements specifcation, etc.)
Rating:
Summary: Bird's Eye View
Review: The sixth edition is better organised that earlier editions. Its coverage is broad though not deep. For example the chapter on Agile methods gives a brief description of the different flavours, including their strengths and weaknesses and summarises what Agile methods have in common. It is targeted at a manager/team leader whose responsibilities do not normally include cutting code. Also it is geared towards enterprise architecture as the `Safe Home' running example amply demonstrates. So if you are writing parsers or numerical applications this is not meant for you.
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