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Summary: Great Book for Technical and Business Managers
Review: This book is especially helpful to those either: 1) new to managing projects 2) have never been formally trained in managing projects 3) are more on the business side of the fence and need insight into the software development processI highly recommend this book if you fall into any of the above categories. I also recommend buying this book for any non-technical bosses.
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Summary: Superb project roadmap and cheklists
Review: Most (but not all) information in "Software Project Survival Guide" was also presented in "Rapid Development" by the same author. The value of this book is not in the amount of information, because "Rapid Development" provides much more information and many different best practices. The value of this book is the clear road map it gives you for running a project according to the "staged delivery" model. The checklists in the book are invaluable. This book is a blessing for everyone who is overwhelmed by the amount of information in "Rapid Development". I think this book is the perfect companion to "Rapid Development". "Rapid Development" is the authoritative reference for a lot of good practices. "Software Project Survival Guide" provides the checklists and road maps to keep the project on track in every phase of the project.
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Summary: Just give every software development manager a copy!
Review: In a past life I made the weekly study of this book a requirement for my entire software development management staff. Steve McConnell provides a blueprint that works with just about any project size. If you don't have a software development lifecycle, hand out copies of this book and tell you staff to "just do it." If you have processes that are defined and implemented use Steve's best practices to raise the bar in the organization. Either way, you and your organization are much better off than before...
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Summary: Concerns about the approach presented
Review: I must admit I have only read the other reviews of this book, but I do want to make a comment. Reading this book if you are in a CMM Level 1 organization is probably a good idea, because you'll need survival tactics. If you're in a Level 2 or higher organization, this is an indication that you still have cowboy/cowgirl tendencies and aren't getting on board with what the rest of your organization is doing. I just got a copy of 'A Discipline for Software Engineering' by Watts Humphreys and think it has a lot more meat to it, since it teaches not survival techniques, but engineering discipline that we all need to demonstrate. I'm going to recommend we start a corporate effort to make all 'serious' programmers aware of the techniques it presents. We need more engineering discipline, and fewer tricks to be successful when the organizations we work for are undisciplined.
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Summary: What everyone knows, but never follows
Review: This book does an excellent job of pointing out items that every project should cover. The examples are limited, but it gives you a great starting point to assess your project. Take the project quiz and see how your project rates. One complaint is they do not give enough examples on requirements gathering. The theory of requirements gathering is shoved down your throat, but I was looking for steps. Overall a great gift for that project manager who "THINKS" the project is going well...
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Summary: Everyone in the industry should own this book!
Review: It does not get much better than this. Very practical and right on target. If you want your next software project to actually be on-time, on-budget, and exceed user expectation, follow exactly what this book says to do!
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Summary: A must-have
Review: This book was easy to read and covered the whole spectrum of software development projects, from concept to release. I found the book a bit shallow at times and would strongly suggest that you complement it with the other Steve McConnell book, Rapid Development. It is definitely oriented towards best practices and software development processes but with a very practical and no-nonsense approach. The web site that accompanies this book, is also very well done and contains a multitude of useful templates, checklists, and other goodies for the project manager.
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Summary: I have a question regarding the book
Review: Can you tell me if this book comes in spanish? I have a relative interested in this book, but he prefers it in spanish. P.S. Sorry to use this page to ask a question, I didn't see anywhere for customers comments.
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Summary: One of the very good books on Software Project Management
Review: One of the very good books I have come across. Being a Software Engineering Consultant and practitioner, I was curious to know how the author had dealt with the pronciples of Software Engineering vis-a-vis the realities and practicalities of day-to-day Project Management. I was quite impressed with the way the author has tackled and handled the various issues dealt with in the book. However, I do wish he had been able to complement the topics with examples. All in all, a book every Software professional should be having on his bookshelf.
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Summary: Great for anyone interested in PC development
Review: This book covers the most important aspects of software development, from the ground up. A great thing about it (and the reason I bought it) is that its lessons can be applied to any kind of software project you are working on; be it a game, database, anything. Combined with all of the online subsidaries and references it denotes, I had no choice but to give it 5 stars. Good work, Mr. McConnell!
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