Augustine's Laws

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Summary: Dilbert's Ancestor?...
Review: Accurate, Funny, and informative. This book captures the real (and not so real) world of government and other large projects spot on. Having been on both sides (NASA and contractor), there be truth in this wit. Enjoy. To be appreciated, best read while sitting on a $600 toilet seat.

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening and entertaining
Review: I would not have ever expected to find myself laughing out loud, nor even smiling often while reading a book that discusses government projects and corporations who contract them. Norman Augustine provides a clear and critical insight into the corporate-government affairs world with just enough graphs and charts to make it comprehensible yet not overbearing. I found it as light reading - which is a virtue on it's own when reading about such complex a subject.

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Summary: Augustine's Laws is simply a must have, must read!
Review: Norm Augustine has captured the government defense aerospace industry "sprawling on a pin" for dissection. In one particularly humorous bit he points out that just when the aerospace industry's trend to more and more expensive combat aircraft looked like it might be stalled since adding weight is anathema to aircraft -- along came something expensive and weightless to fill the gap -- software! This is one terrific book! Just the figure showing there is no correlation between what executives are paid and the performance of their companies is worth the price of admission.

Rating:
Summary: Augustine's Laws is simply a must have, must read!
Review: Norm Augustine has captured the government defense aerospace industry "sprawling on a pin" for dissection. In one particularly humorous bit he points out that just when the aerospace industry's trend to more and more expensive combat aircraft looked like it might be stalled since adding weight is anathema to aircraft -- along came something expensive and weightless to fill the gap -- software! This is one terrific book! Just the figure showing there is no correlation between what executives are paid and the performance of their companies is worth the price of admission.

Rating:
Summary: Required reading for anyone in the aerospace business
Review: Norman Augustine wrote "Augustine's Laws" in his position as president and Chief Operating Officer of Martin Marietta Corporation (since merged into Lockheed Martin.) This book should be required reading for anyone accepting a job anywhere in the aerospace industry. Augustine follows the declining fortunes of the fictional Daedalus Model Airplane Company as key projects meet every obstacle and disaster business can devise. He sums up his findings in fifty-two witty laws, such as number XXVI, "If a sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on top of each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance." He comments on the thickness of proposals (one millimeter per $ million contract value), the number of briefings required to keep a multi-year program funded (approximately one year's worth of work per year), and the odds of getting anything approved (a "yes" is a succession of "non-no's.")

This book is the aerospace industry in a nutshell. It's funny, tragic, and absolutely dead-on. Read it if you're a taxpayer, a jobholder, or a person who likes a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This book describes to autor's knowledge in the aerospace and defense industries. Written with a lot of humor and unfortunatly the stories are probably true. A must