Software Runaways: Monumental Software Disasters [Paperback]

Robert L. Glass (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 013673443X | ISBN-13: 978-0136734437 | Publication Date: September 28, 1997 | Edition: 1

Failure often teaches more than success. This book shows what went wrong in 16 of the worst software disasters of recent years -- and shows how to prevent your own software disasters.Software failure expert Robert Glass reviews the major software disasters of the past decade, including both widely-publicized and less well-known fiascoes. He identifies six characteristics of impending failure, including elements rarely discussed in other software engineering texts, such as the overdependence on new technology and the failure to adequately consider performance issues. Among the failures Glass discusses are: the FAA's Air Traffic Control System; American Airlines' Confirm; and Bank of America's MasterNet. Most important, Glass presents specific lessons to be learned from each of these failures, so your software project won't show up on the nightly news.All software project managers, IS senior management, developers, and other software professionals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Read the entire review of this book.

One of the thoughts that sprang to my mind when I read Software Runaways by Robert Glass is that it is a good thing for the book, the author, and the publishing house that the world operates by Adam Smith's theories, where value is determined by supply and demand, instead of Karl Marx's, where value is determined by the work done. Perhaps that is a little too harsh, as Glass surely had to spend considerable time and energy compiling his articles, asking for permission to print, and lining up people to write their views on sundry topics. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that a good portion of the book (half?) consists of articles culled from print media of widely ranging technicality (from IEEE Software to Computerworld to the Wall Street Journal). On the other hand, most of the book, including Glass's own writing, was very readable and sometimes humorous.

-- Richard Tung, Dr. Dobb's Journal -- Dr. Dobb's Journal

From the Back Cover

67344-2

What you can learn from 16 colossal software disasters.

If failure teaches more than success, imagine how much you can learn from the most catastrophic software development failures of all time. In Software Runaways, software failure expert Robert Glass shows exactly what went wrong in 16 colossal software disasters -- and how to keep it from happening to you.

Glass goes behind the scenes of those awful projects you've seen on the nightly news -- the Denver Airport baggage system, the IRS modernization --and a host of less well-publicized failures that are equally instructive. Along the way, he identifies six characteristics of projects likely to fail -- and some of them will surprise you.

Software Runaways brings a software engineer's perspective to projects like:

• American Airlines' failed reservation system, Confirm
• The 4GL disaster at the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles
• The NCR inventory system that nearly destroyed its customers
• The next-generation FAA Air Traffic Control System that collapsed

Glass presents specific lessons to be learned from each failure, and shows how to "sniff out" runaway projects early enough to take action. He also considers the typical responses to potential runaways, including risk management and issue management, demonstrating their strengths and weaknesses.

Whether you're an IT executive, project manager or developer, Software Runaways helps you learn from someone else's mistakes -- and that's a whole lot less painful than making them yourself!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (September 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 013673443X
• ISBN-13: 978-0136734437
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,021,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert L. Glass held his first job in computing in 1954. Author of over 25 books, he is one of the true pioneers of the software field. He is the editor and publisher of The Software Practitioner newsletter, and has written regular columns for Communications of the ACM, IEEE Software, and Information Systems Management. In 1995 he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from Linkoping University of Sweden, and in 1999 he was named a Fellow of the ACM professional society. His unique viewpoint and timeless (often contrarian!)writings have for decades offered insights to practitioners, managers, professors, entrepreneurs, researchers, and students alike. Recent books include Software Conflict 2.0 and Software Creativity 2.0, from developer.* Books, Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, from Addison-Wesley, and The Dark Dide of Software Engineering, from Wiley/IEEE CS Press.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, not very technical, and of sporadic interest, July 12, 1999

By 

Stephen J. Friedl (Yorba Linda, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Software Runaways: Monumental Software Disasters (Paperback)

After reading the other reviews of this book, I expected to find a light read more likened to "America's Most Shocking Police Videos", but I was mostly disappointed.

The first series of articles on the Denver airport debacle (reportedly they set out to build the largest airport in the country but ended up with second-largest airport in Denver) made virtually no reference to software. The contractors of the baggage system ran into problems with physical access to the terminal, changing requirements, and uncooperative City officials, but they didn't discuss the software issues much. It was a typical political mess.

The story behind the FAA's failed air-traffic-control system was the most interesting technically, and the failed New Jersey DMV project was enlightening about using the wrong tool for the job.

The story on the failed California DMV system is *two pages* long, and they mention "unspecified software problems" as being involved. The story about the Adidas warehousing software failure was three pages long, and I did not find a single lesson to take from it. These do not look like any inside information to me.

This book was a fairly enjoyable four-hour read (really!) but it was not worth the $30 I spent on it. Borrow it from the library or a friend before spending yours.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Misleading..., July 26, 2000

By 

Joseph Panico (Hoboken, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Software Runaways: Monumental Software Disasters (Paperback)

This book suffers some major flaws, which are not well represented on the back cover or in the introduction.

1) The story telling is incredibly dull. The author desperately needs some lessons from Cringely.

2) The story telling is all third-hand. The author had no first hand experience in any of the disasters, nor did he bother to personally interview any of the participants. Instead, he simply compiled information from public media sources.

3) The story telling barely relates to software development at all. Many of the stories superficially relate management failures or legal battles with hardly a reference to the actual software projects/issues.

4) The story telling is often not even by the author himself! Some of the stories are simply reprints of professional journal articles by other authors. Tellingly, these are often the more (barely) interesting stories.

I think the book cover misrepresents the contents substantially. I felt sort of ripped-off. 2 stars only because it is one of the few books that collects a lot of this information in one place.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars poor rehash of famous big-budget disasters, January 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Software Runaways: Monumental Software Disasters (Paperback)

This book's subtitle is "Lessons Learned from Massive Software Project Failures." A more accurate subtitle would be "Assortment of InformationWeek articles written about costly failures that involved software." This is a shallow and superficial book. There is no original research, no original reporting, and no deep analysis.

Sometimes there are three separate articles on the same failed software project! This is pointless repetition, not any type of deeper analysis. It's like reading a xeroxed collection of articles, except it's in a glossy cover. The "author" writes a few paragraphs before and after each project.

The quantification, if there is any, involves the dollars exchanged in the settlement between the two companies. No numbers about anything technical ever appear.

This is a good book if you're a consultant and you want some scary stories to tell a CIO. If you want advice, read one of Steve McConnell's books.