Applied Software Project Management (Paperback)

~ (Author), Jennifer Greene PSE (Author), Stellman Andrew (Author), Greene Jennifer (Author)
Key Phrases: use case approach, symbolic link item, estimation session, Wideband Delphi, Addison Wesley, Six Sigma (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"If you're looking for solid, easy-to-follow advice on estimation, requirements gathering, managing change, and more, you can stop now: this is the book for you." --Scott Berkun, Author of The Art of Project Management

What makes software projects succeed? It takes more than a good idea and a team of talented programmers. A project manager needs to know how to guide the team through the entire software project. There are common pitfalls that plague all software projects and rookie mistakes that are made repeatedly--sometimes by the same people! Avoiding these pitfalls is not hard, but it is not necessarily intuitive. Luckily, there are tried and true techniques that can help any project manager.

In Applied Software Project Management, Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene provide you with tools, techniques, and practices that you can use on your own projects right away. This book supplies you with the information you need to diagnose your team's situation and presents practical advice to help you achieve your goal of building better software.

Topics include:

• Planning a software project
• Helping a team estimate its workload
• Building a schedule
• Gathering software requirements and creating use cases
• Improving programming with refactoring, unit testing, and version control
• Managing an outsourced project
• Testing software

Jennifer Greene and Andrew Stellman have been building software together since 1998. Andrew comes from a programming background and has managed teams of requirements analysts, designers, and developers. Jennifer has a testing background and has managed teams of architects, developers, and testers. She has led multiple large-scale outsourced projects. Between the two of them, they have managed every aspect of software development. They have worked in a wide range of industries, including finance, telecommunications, media, nonprofit, entertainment, natural-language processing, science, and academia. For more information about them and this book, visit http://www.stellman-greene.com.

About the Author

Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene are both veteran software engineers and project managers. They created Stellman & Greene Consulting in 2003, with a focus on project management, software development, management consulting, and software process improvement. Andrew and Jennifer have worked in a wide range of industries, including finance, telecommunications, media, non-profit, entertainment, natural language processing, science and academia. Their first book, Applied Software Project Management, was published by O'Reilly Media in 2005 and has been widely praised by project managers, software engineers and academics. Their second book, Head First PMP, was called "the very best basic education and training book that I have read" by Dennis Bolles, the project manager and lead author of the Project Management Institute's PMBOK(R) Guide. And their third book, Head First C#, is one of the most popular book for learning C#, Windows programming and object oriented programming and design. They regularly speak at schools, companies and professional organizations on project management, quality, software development and process improvement.

Jennifer Greene, has spent the past 15 years or so building software for many different kinds of companies. She's worked for small start-ups and some huge companies along the way. She's built software test teams and helped lots of companies diagnose and deal with habitual process problems so that they could build better software. Since her start in software test and process definition, she's branched out into development management and project management. She's currently managing a big development team for a global media company and she's managed just about every aspect of software development through her career. Jennifer founded Stellman & Greene Consulting with Andrew Stellman in 2003, initially to serve the scientific and academic community. They have worked in a wide range of industries including finance, telecommunications, media, non-profit, entertainment, natural language processing, science and academia. They do speaking engagements, provide training on development practices, manage teams, and build software. Together, they've written two highly acclaimed books on project management (Head First PMP and Applied Software Project Management), Head First C#, and most recently just finished up Beautiful Teams. For more information about Jennifer, Andrew Stellman, and their books, visit http: //www.stellman-greene.com.

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Product Details Paperback: 322 pages Publisher: O'Reilly Media; illustrated edition edition (November 18, 2005) Language: English ISBN-10: 0596009488 ISBN-13: 978-0596009489 Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.9 inches Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #116,497 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in these categories: (What's this?) #65 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Systems Analysis & Design #71 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Project Management > PMP Exam

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More About the Authors

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Jennifer Greene

Andrew Stellman

Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
use case approach, symbolic link item, estimation session, serious project problems, svn status, final task list, float principal, estimation team, scope document, outsourced project, defect tracking system, requirements analyst, automated unit tests, use case document, inspection meeting, software project planning, many project managers, inspection log, phased release, inspection team members, software testers, most project managers, elicitation activities, following checklist items, pair programming

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Wideband Delphi, Addison Wesley, Six Sigma, Software Engineering Institute, Karl Wiegers, Kent Beck, Expected Results, Alternative Paths, Name Inspection, Martin Fowler, Parkinson's Law, Planning Game, Peer Reviews, Microsoft Project, Pragmatic Unit Testing, Extreme Programming, Software Requirements Specification

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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Citations (learn more)

1 book cites this book:

• Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme by Robert K. Wysocki in Back Matter

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	86% buy the item featured on this page: Applied Software Project Management 4.9 out of 5 stars (16) $35.25
	4% buy Head First Pmp: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam 4.2 out of 5 stars (80) $44.09
	4% buy Leading a Software Development Team: A developer's guide to successfully leading people & projects 4.5 out of 5 stars (10) $31.19
	3% buy Effective Software Project Management 3.8 out of 5 stars (6) $29.70

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews 5 star:  (15) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.9 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 13 of 14 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Great process and management tool!, December 2, 2005 By  O. Fishel "Frequent project manager" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    I've tried many project management processes and have searched through most of the popular literature over the years trying to find the best way to implement real process change. Much of the literature describes the processes well but ignores the implementation entirely. Applied Software Project Management does a wonderful job both describing the various tools and techniques and giving detailed instructions on how to implement them. The book even goes so far as to describing how to implement processes in an organization that is openly hostile to change and/or process in general. I find this book to be an invaluable resource for any project manager. It's great for newbies, who will learn all the vocabulary and process theory. Experienced project managers will learn new tools and techniques as well as innovatives ways of getting them implemented. 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Improve Team Efficiency, May 18, 2006 By  Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)       The software engineering process is a complicated one to say the least. Like any other product that gets "created" by the effort of a team, you need great direction and leadership to solve real world problems. You cannot simply throw more people at the problem in order to get things done, and that's where good management can make the difference when it comes to making a software product get out the door fast, efficient, and successfully. 'Applied Software Product Management' by Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene tackles this problem and they it's a extremely helpful read for anyone that wants to improve the process of developing software at their company. Relying off of real world experience for many, many years, the authors discuss topics such as: planning, scheduling, hiring, requirements, good coding, and testing like few others have ever done in a written form. If you are a manager of a team, a group, or an entire company, you would be remiss to not pick up a copy of this book. The amount of great ideas and guidance contained within will no doubt fill in the leaks in your company structure, but most likely take your company to the next level. I found the information contained within to be well-written and easy to follow. ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book with real-word experience, April 21, 2006 By  ueberhund "ueberhund" (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews    I found this to be an excellent book on software project management. Many of the project management books I have picked up have been either too theory-based or not relevant to the day-to-day problems that exist in software development. I found this book both relevant and practical. This book is divided into two sections. The first section discusses the tools involved in software project management, while the second section discusses how to actually manage a software project effectively. The first section goes through all the tools required to effective manage a software project. The authors dedicate entire chapters to SOW creation, estimation, scheduling, coding (including a discussion on source control providers), and testing. In each chapter, not only do the authors describe the process, but in certain cases, they provide tips to help things go smoother. For example, in the chapter on estimation, the authors provide several different ways to accurately estimate project tasks. I found many of these additional tips very helpful. In the second section of the book, the authors discuss how to effectively manage a software development team using the tools discussed in section one. The authors don't specifically use the word "agile", but I found that most of section two became a discussion on agile practices. Again, the word "agile" was never used, however, I found it both interesting and refreshing to hear a book on project management discussing how to be adaptable to change. I was very pleased with this book. I thought it was a realistic and well-thought out book on software project management. This book goes a long way toward arming someone with the tools they need to effectively manage a software development project.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars I think it will be helpful... I have not read this book yet, but I feel like it would be really helpful for my job. As I have read, it looks like a very practical handbook to use every day in the projects... Read more Published 2 months ago by Katie 5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Advice for PMs This book gets five stars, because from the first time I picked it up, it helped solve a problem I had at work with a highly annoying colleague who constantly went over my head to... Read more Published 14 months ago by Alex Russell 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for technical project managers I bumped into this book by way of "Head First PMP", also written by Stellman and Greene. Because I liked the PMP resource so much, I thought I should give this book a chance and I... Read more Published 19 months ago by Jorgen Hesselberg 5.0 out of 5 stars excellent purchase This is a nice book, everything about it is so neat and nice. I am glad I purchased this book from Amazon. Published 20 months ago by P. Amoah 5.0 out of 5 stars This a handbook or guide Applied Software Project Management Reviewed by Steven D. Sewell, PMP Project Management Institute, Tampa Bay Chapter Having been peripherally involved as... Read more Published on September 3, 2007 by S. D. Sewell 5.0 out of 5 stars A good summary and comprehensive bibliography to those who want to go deeper This book covers concisely all the modern aspects os software project management, without the complexity found in more formal PM sources like the PMBOK. Read more Published on August 1, 2006 by Fabio Ceconello 5.0 out of 5 stars VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMNDED!! Do you work for a software organization who where there are chronic problems producing software on schedule and without defects? If you do, then this book is for you! Read more Published on May 29, 2006 by John R. Vacca 5.0 out of 5 stars A handy guide to what makes software projects succeed Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene's Applied Software Project Management provides software engineers with a handy guide to what makes software projects succeed. Read more Published on May 2, 2006 by Midwest Book Review 5.0 out of 5 stars A good read for the novice and expert ... Good book ... it's not too prescriptive or preachy... Having read a few too many books on software development management, this book had a bunch of good ideas on how... Read more Published on February 2, 2006 by Brian Duperrouzel 5.0 out of 5 stars Practical, Eclectic, and Effective I was one of the technical reviewers for this book. However, since I was busy with projects of my own, I did not have a chance to review all of the content prior to the book's... Read more Published on January 15, 2006 by Eric Renkey Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 322 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; illustrated edition edition (November 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596009488
• ISBN-13: 978-0596009489
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #116,497 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #65 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Systems Analysis & Design
  #71 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Project Management > PMP Exam

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great process and management tool!, December 2, 2005

By	O. Fishel "Frequent project manager" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've tried many project management processes and have searched through most of the popular literature over the years trying to find the best way to implement real process change. Much of the literature describes the processes well but ignores the implementation entirely. Applied Software Project Management does a wonderful job both describing the various tools and techniques and giving detailed instructions on how to implement them. The book even goes so far as to describing how to implement processes in an organization that is openly hostile to change and/or process in general.

I find this book to be an invaluable resource for any project manager. It's great for newbies, who will learn all the vocabulary and process theory. Experienced project managers will learn new tools and techniques as well as innovatives ways of getting them implemented.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Improve Team Efficiency, May 18, 2006

By	Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The software engineering process is a complicated one to say the least. Like any other product that gets "created" by the effort of a team, you need great direction and leadership to solve real world problems. You cannot simply throw more people at the problem in order to get things done, and that's where good management can make the difference when it comes to making a software product get out the door fast, efficient, and successfully.

'Applied Software Product Management' by Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene tackles this problem and they it's a extremely helpful read for anyone that wants to improve the process of developing software at their company. Relying off of real world experience for many, many years, the authors discuss topics such as: planning, scheduling, hiring, requirements, good coding, and testing like few others have ever done in a written form.

If you are a manager of a team, a group, or an entire company, you would be remiss to not pick up a copy of this book. The amount of great ideas and guidance contained within will no doubt fill in the leaks in your company structure, but most likely take your company to the next level. I found the information contained within to be well-written and easy to follow.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book with real-word experience, April 21, 2006

By	ueberhund "ueberhund" (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews

I found this to be an excellent book on software project management. Many of the project management books I have picked up have been either too theory-based or not relevant to the day-to-day problems that exist in software development. I found this book both relevant and practical.

This book is divided into two sections. The first section discusses the tools involved in software project management, while the second section discusses how to actually manage a software project effectively.

The first section goes through all the tools required to effective manage a software project. The authors dedicate entire chapters to SOW creation, estimation, scheduling, coding (including a discussion on source control providers), and testing. In each chapter, not only do the authors describe the process, but in certain cases, they provide tips to help things go smoother. For example, in the chapter on estimation, the authors provide several different ways to accurately estimate project tasks. I found many of these additional tips very helpful.

In the second section of the book, the authors discuss how to effectively manage a software development team using the tools discussed in section one. The authors don't specifically use the word "agile", but I found that most of section two became a discussion on agile practices. Again, the word "agile" was never used, however, I found it both interesting and refreshing to hear a book on project management discussing how to be adaptable to change.

I was very pleased with this book. I thought it was a realistic and well-thought out book on software project management. This book goes a long way toward arming someone with the tools they need to effectively manage a software development project.