Rating: 
Summary: A fun read, with plenty to learn...
Review: If you normally fall asleep while reading books about Project Management, give this one a try. Set in the form of a novel, the reader follows the experiences of a Project Manager charged with bringing home a series of project with typically impossible deadlines.This is not a text book. If you're new to Project Management, I recommend that you start elsewhere. However, if you've been involved in projects or find yourself in the lucky position of being a Project Manager, this book provides some valuable ideas about how to improve your project -- or at least cope with inevitabilities. If you enjoy this book, also look at "The Goal" by Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox, and also "Zapp: The Lightning of Improvement" by William Byham.
Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining, educational experience
Review: Like economics, the discipline of software development suffers from a weakness that prevents the resolution of competing theories, in that it is generally impossible to perform controlled experiments. It would take an extremely brave manager to ever try out two competing development theories by having two teams build the same product simultaneously. However, it is possible to borrow a technique from theoretical physics and perform thought experiments. Such an experiment would involve having more than one team develop the same product simultaneously, but using different techniques. That type of experiment is the premise of this novel.
The main character is a recent victim of downsizing who is kidnapped and taken to a formerly communist country where the educational level is high and the costs are low. Once there, he succumbs to his fantasies and agrees to perform the experiment of his dreams. With six products to build and a large staff of developers, he splits them into eighteen groups where each product is being built by three teams simultaneously. Each group of the three then uses a different development method. Throw in impossible deadlines and you have a microcosm of software development.
It would appear that such a premise would guarantee a boring book, but nothing could be further from the truth. The book is entertaining and enduring, as developers will recognize most of their development problems, albeit couched in somewhat unique circumstances. Many of the leading figures in the theory of software development management make cameo appearances, including a certain very rich man. The end result is a true stroke of genius that has somewhat of a surprise ending, but actually quite natural, given the current climate in the computer business.
It is rare when a book about the management of software development is not as dull as baked dirt, and this book is indeed the exception. Not only is it entertaining, but you can even learn some management skills in the process.
Rating:
Summary: a MUST read for anyone who manages people and projects.
Review: This was really a great reading book. Tom Demarco takes what can be a very tedious subject to read about and makes it interesting. I was so pulled into the story that I had a hard time putting it down. I would find myself sitting up at 2 and 3 in the morning still reading this book. As entertaining as it was, it was also very informative. I have been in the IT Industry 10 years and in Project Mgmt. for almost 4 years now and found the key points and "diary entries" at the end of each chapter to be an excellent guide to all who wish to be successful at managing people and projects. Whether you are new to the ranks of project mgmt. or a seasoned veteran, I think this book has plenty to teach us all. Oh, and I did love the inferences to "Himself".....wonder who he really is???
Rating:
Summary: An outstanding resource for software project managers.
Review: Mr. Demarco's book is an easy, entertaining read. It can be consumed in an evening with very little effort. In the guise of the protagonist's diary entries, Demarco instructs the reader on the finer points of software project management. Humor and a cutting wit are two more of Demarco's strong points. There is more practical information in this little book than in any 10 textbooks on the subject. It is now a part of my library (if I can ever get it back - people keep borrowing it!).
Rating:
Summary: Very readable - more important: very good points made
Review: In this book a lot of problems of big software development projects are discussed. DeMarco discusses causes as well as solutions in a way that makes things very understandably. For the people that have been there and who had their advises dismissed I can say from own experience: it gives the reassurance that you were not as mad as your manager made your environment believe you were when you tried to cut the staff on that project with that very ambitious deadline. The readability and the summoning up at the end of every chapter make this book even more valuable. A "must-read" for project managers, their bosses and who ever is interested in running projects.
Rating: 
Summary: Good mgmt info, cussing, and personal opinions
Review: If you want good management info, just read the summary statements at the end of each chapter. This is a project management book in which Mr. DeMarco takes the opportunity to throw in cussing and his own personal opinions on child-rearing and religion. So if you want to get his liberal opinions and read the other filth, go ahead and read the whole thing. I'm asking for my money back. Most of this is already in PeopleWare.
Rating:
Summary: Read it, mark it up, and compare notes with two others!
Review: I skimmed the book, then got out my highlighter, and am now reading it cover to cover, marking up the pages as I go, and enoying every page. Lots of things are superbly stated, e.g., Management being hiring good people, task-matching them to suitable work, fostering soul in the organization (all the Gantt/Pert/timecard stuff is administrivia); and, look for managers who are awake enough to alter the world as they find it. A few I find provocative, e.g., do lots of very low level design, but don't implement until the last minute. But mark up your own copy and find someone to comare with. I suggest every team leader and manager read it, mark it up, and compare notes with some other people. Alistair Cockburn, author of Surviving Object Oriented Projects.
Rating:
Summary: SW Project Mngmnt Myth Breaker which leaves you open-mouthed
Review: This fascinating book breaks a lot of myths, and more important, points out bad habits and beleifs the software managers had for decades (and still have). One can wonder if all the ways of doing things described in this book actually work in the real life. But think that the author (that has many years in this field) has collected the most important issues which affect the SW development process, as learned from painful experiences of thousands of developers in many years. If you are a SW manager and have a stubborn & old-fashioned boss, give him this book. No one likes to be Allair Belok.
Rating:
Summary: The Deadline - A necessity.
Review: I can not thank you enough for writing this book. The content of the book was not only completetly relevant but so insightful into a topic (sw project management) that is grossly ignored by many people who are in charge of large projects and groups of developers. My experience (7 yrs as a developer) has been that experienced programmers end up "managing" projects. The problem is that they have spent their time developing software and do not seem to know anything about managing a project. The Deadline addressed the important issues of software project management head on by presenting problems to be solved and ways of solving them not just with ideas by specific methods. Not only did I appreciate the material but the format of the book may it enjoyable to read. For a software developer who is starting to realize how much more there is to software development than wich language you know this book is a necessity.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent presentation of Project Management methodologies.
Review: The Deadline by Tom DeMarco gave me good software project management techniques, methodologies and human resource issues in a real world environment. This book created a good setting using colorful characters that show the trials and tribulations that go into a software project. Enjoyable reading would recommend to anyone, not just software project managers. Most topics can be used on any type of project.
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