Customer Reviews

Principles Of Software Engineering Management

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book hard to read. I often had to force myself to read further, although the ideas and principles described are important and should be required knowledge of any software engineer and SE manager (which does not mean that they necessarily apply to all projects).

The book contains endless redundancy and lots of hard to understand details of projects the author has worked on. One chapter even contains excerpts from other books and articles that confirm the author's views - as though the author feared he hadn't been convincing enough (that wasn't the problem).

In summary, the book should have had half the length and that would have still covered the same content. It might be interesting to readers new to the principles of evolutionary delivery, measurable attribte objectives, and inspection.

Firstly, don't let the title put you off -this book is relevant to a lot of people who wouldn't call themselves "sofware engineers" or "managers" - it's also highly relevant to systems analysts / designers & just about any sort of IT consultant, amongst others.

What separates this from most other books on software development is that just about every page is obviously written by someone who has been there and done it (recently), not just talked about it. The main ideas of the book (evolutionary delivery, defining ojectives as either "functional" or "attributes" ) may not seem revolutionary, but apply it and it could revolutionise your project and maybe career. No IT book I've ever has ever affected my own work so profoundly.

It's also well written and exceptionally well laid out. More please, Tom!

Don't let the publishing date of this book fool you. This is a timeless reference in the art of requirements management and software inspections. It was an epiphany for me as a young software project manager in the late 80's, and it is still on my bookshelf today. It was written by a project manager who has "walked the walk". As another reviewer alluded, this book positively reeks with credibility and real-world experience. And the scope of its requirements management methodology is much wider than just software development -- it can be applied to virtually any project management discipline. Most failed projects were doomed from the start by their faulty requirements management or complete lack thereof. If every budding project manager read this book and practiced this methodology, the world would be a better place. Strong words, but read the book and see if it isn't true. You might also visit the www.gilb.com website -- lots of good stuff there, and a lot of it is free.

Gilb covers only a small portion of "Software Engineering Management" in detail. Other important issues are either not addressed at all or receive only cursory treatment. Still, what it does go into depth about it usually well thought out and makes imminent sense. I'd say it's worth reading, but it may be a bit expensive for it's narrowness.

This book covers three main topics: evolutionary development, requirements management, and inspections. A good introduction to all three, but if you plan on trying evolutionary development, I also suggest reading the pertinent sections of Rapid Development by Steve McConnell.

This book covers two very important software engineering topics: the unambiguous specification of business goals and product specification and on evolutionary project management. It also covers the Fagan inspections process which is one of the most powerful techniques in software development. If you like this book, you should also consider the book "Competitive Engineering" by the same author.

Gilb introduces three ideas that may not be new, but extremely useful for software projects. Evolutionary delivery, or delivering small parts all the time, while getting feedback; formal inspections, which will save time and hassle; attribute specifications, to help you set a clear goal. I guarantee that this book will see software in a fresh, new perspective!

When a 22 years old book on software engineering feels as good, useful and actual as this one, there's no doubt we're talking about a very good book. I really think that the author managed to clearly convey and argument important software engineering principles, as well as to share valuable personal opinions and experiences.

Important topics covered include (but are not limited to):
- evolutionary software development and delivery
- requirement specification
- solution evaluation and cost/impact estimation
- (Fagan's) formal inspection
- Practical hints in different areas (how to cope with tight deadlines, fuzzy requirements and so on)

Although formal inspections are most likely going to be overkill for small and medium sized software projects - where TDD and agile development techniques can nowadays suffice and possibly be even better quality assurance techniques - I personally think that all other principles, methodologies and hints contained herein can be very valuable in many circumstances to all software engineers, architects and developers; novices and veterans alike.

Despite the fact that there are a few redundancies here and there (and that's pretty much the only reason why I don't rate this book 5 stars), I still think that the author managed to keep it very easy and pleasant to read; so, I still like to pick it up again for a refreshment every once in a while and I have no reserves or hesitation whatsoever in recommending it to everyone involved in software development.