Software Project Management: A Unified Framework [Hardcover]

Walker Royce (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 1998

This book provides a clear and provocative discussion of the economics, metrics, and management strategies necessary to plan and execute a software project successfully. Royce discusses, with refreshing candor, some of the fads, follies, and excesses of the software industry, clearly differentiating proven techniques and obsolete methods. Paired with this insightful examination are compelling arguments for new management approaches that are sure to stimulate debate. The relative impacts of these new techniques are quantified through simple economic analyses, common sense, and anecdotal evidence. The resulting framework strikes a pragmatic balance between theory and practice that can be readily applied in today's challenging development environment. An extensive case study analysis of a large-scale, million-line project deployed successfully on schedule and under budget using these methods further illustrates their application.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For a cutting-edge take on how to manage today's object-oriented, iterative software development process, take a look at Walker Royce's Software Project Management. This readable, comprehensive guide shows how well-managed software teams can produce better, more profitable software in less time.

The book begins by outlining the "traditional" waterfall approach to software development. The author looks at what changes for management when it comes to today's iterative software processes. Written with an eye toward management (with plenty of tables and figures for project estimation and planning), the author takes you through common pitfalls of managing software.

Besides reviewing older studies and metrics, the author offers his own 10 principles to managing software, along with hints for all facets of development, from initial inception to construction and deployment of software. The author provides detailed project milestones and other deliverables to help you manage software better, including a breakdown of tasks for your team that will help maximize your efficiency.

After a look forward at what better software management means for return on investment (ROI), the author presents several very useful appendices, which include software metrics (like COCOMO), as well as a description of the CCPDS-R missile command system (which used many of the author's management principles). Overall, this groundbreaking title will be useful to any software manager or project leader seeking to get control of software costs and improve team efficiency. --Richard Dragan

Review

Royce's thesis is that many current software management practices are tied to archaic technologies and techniques. His book therefore focuses on what we should keep doing, what we should change, and why. For example, Chapter 4 is a point-by-point discussion of the points raised in Alan Davis's influential article "Fifteen Principles of Software Engineering." Royce argues that some of Davis's principles, such as evaluating design alternatives before starting construction, are anchored in the discredited waterfall model, and may actually be counter-productive in a world where iterative development is done using commodity components.

Similarly, Royce is sceptical about the benefits of code inspections, believing both that modern tools allow automated testing through the project lifecycle, and that code inspections are usually so boring that they are inevitably superficial. Perhaps his most challenging statement is that you shouldn't plan to throw this process away. Instead, you should plan to evolve your product...Read more from this review. --Gregory V. Wilson, Dr. Dobb's Journal -- Dr. Dobb's Journal

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (September 20, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201309580
• ISBN-13: 978-0201309584
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #882,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author Biography: Walker Royce is an author, a mentor, a thought leader, and an executive at IBM. For more than 30 years, he has coached business leaders and professional teams in high-stakes innovations. He knows what it takes to connect with audiences and individuals, and he has a rare knack for observing communications styles. Deep down he's a language nut, a puzzle whiz, and a coach.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read of every software professional, January 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Software Project Management: A Unified Framework (Hardcover)

There are several books on Software Engineering, Software project Management, Software Development, Development Economics and so on. Most of these books treat the practice of Software Project Management or Software Development based on the long established software development models and principles. But as obvious to any practicing software developer/project manager, these models and principles do not reflect or represent the reality. For example, the widely accepted Waterfall model is not a true representation of the actual software development process. It gained its popularity because it was easier to understand, use and implement. But that does not make it infallible or unquestionable. Actually many people, over the years have tried to question the correctness and soundness of these models and theories. But their efforts have been somewhat sporadic and the impact was not felt and most of them were ignored or forgotten.

But in the book `Software Project Management: A Unified Framework', Walker Royce has done a commendable job in not only questioning the established theories, models and principles, but also in exposing their weaknesses and in many cases is providing with practical and ready-to-use solutions. This book is comprehensive, thought provoking and often provocative and holds nothing-whether it is the existing software theories or it way in which the software development was done and is being done-as sacrosanct.

The author questions many of the existing theories, exposes their weakness and tells why they are not suitable for the software development in the modern times. Drawing from his vast and varied experience as a project manager and software developer, Royce offers the reader, in clear and simple terms, his ideas and insights on software development and software project management.

The most striking factors that make this book so good and useful is that, it is written by a professional for the professionals. It not a book written some theorist who does not have any idea of the reality, but this is written by a person who has done it all and seen it all and that too for quite some time.

Another interesting aspect of the book is the writing style. It is simple, precise and to-the-point. No wasted words and such economical and efficient use of language. The prose is peppered with real-life examples, anecdotes, charts and tables. The author's well-developed sense of humour is evident in many occasions. For example, consider this paragraph from the preface; "I have struggled with whether to position this book as management education or management training. The distinction may seem nitpicky, but it is important. An example I heard 15 years ago illustrates the difference. Suppose your 14-year-old daughter came home from school one day and asked, "Mom and Dad, may I take the sex education course offered at school?" Your reaction would likely be different if she asked, "May I take the sex training course offered at school?" (This meant less to me then than it does now that my three daughters are teenagers!)"

This book is full of practical and innovative ideas that could be implemented immediately. This book will teach even the most seasoned software professional a couple of tricks. For the people who are beginning to understand the complexities of software development and project management, this book will be godsend. A MUST READ FOR EVERYBODY WHO HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT.

Copyright (c) Pegasus Book Club

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding collection of advanced technqiues, May 11, 2002

By 

Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Software Project Management: A Unified Framework (Hardcover)

If you aren't versed in advanced project management techniques this book will be overwhelming. More important you may pick up misleading information. However, if you are a battle-scared veteran of software development projects and have a full understanding of earned value project management, estimating techniques and development life cycles you'll learn much from this book.

The highlights are:
* A project life cycle and process framework that is [obviously] closely aligned to the Rational Unified Process (RUP), and can be fitted to any rapid development or iterative approach.

* An excellent tutorial on effective project controls, with an emphasis on earned value project management.

* In-depth coverage of estimating techniques, with a lot of material on the constructive cost model (CoCoMo), and current gaps in estimating techniques and to where the craft and science of estimating and software economics needs to evolve in the discussion of next-generation cost models. I especially like his distinction between the use of source lines of code metrics for size and function points for scale. There is middle ground.The treasure trove of metrics, including core project metrics, and the change metrics that are given in Appendix C.
There is one glaring flaw in this book and an experienced project manager will quickly spot it: the proposed approach to basing work breakdown structures on project phases instead of the decomposition of the system to be delivered will not work. Using Royce's approach there is no clear way of integrating the work breakdown structure with the organizational breakdown structure. Using earned value techniques (which is well covered elsewhere in the book) Royce's approach will not align control accounts (sometimes called cost accounts), making his recommendations contrived and unworkable.

This book is better suited for an architecture-centric approach to project management, which means that it's more applicable to product development instead of internal IT projects. However, all seasoned PMs will learn much from it.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book on Software Project Management, December 28, 2000

By 

Aravind Manohar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Software Project Management: A Unified Framework (Hardcover)

This is a book that lives up to its title. It begins by explaining the pitfalls of the traditional models, and then introduces the reader to the new "Architecture First, Iterative" model. The material is organized well. Each chapter has something good to offer. Some chapters explain a concept in great detail, and just when you get a feeling that you are lost, there appears a section that makes "pragmatic" sense!! Good explanation about development Life Cycles, Workflows and the Iterative development model. There is a lot of emphasis on early integration, which I believe is the right way to develop software. Royce points out that Software Testing (Assessment) should not be treated as a separate entity in the software development life cycle. Instead it should be woven right into the framework, thus becoming an integral part of each phase in the Life Cycle - again, a very crucial and significant idea. One may have to tweak the ideas to suit specific needs, but the book delivers the right message in general. A must read for Software Project Leads and the likes......