Rating: 
Summary: Wrong Emphasis on Project Management
Review: This book cannot be recommended. Experienced project managers will find a better and more balanced treatment of these topics elsewhere, while neophytes will be seriously misled about the role of a project manager and his responsibilities. The books main thesis is that by using object-oriented approaches, UML and an appropriate methodology the new project manger is well prepared to be successful. Nothing could be further from the truth. Managing a software development project has very little to do with any of these. Throughout the book we look in vain for proper treatment of the real issues a project manager faces: requirements elucidation, senior management involvement, change control, risk management, user involvement, etc. Where these issues are not ignored they are dismissed in a few lines. To find out why projects succeed or fail all managers should read the CHAOS report. Despite its title the book seems curiously dated. Many of its claims were also made about structured methodologies nearly twenty years ago. Here are some examples. In the Introduction the author boldly states "..we in the industry really do know how to manage software development." This is beyond positive thinking and way into deep denial. Where ever you go and what ever group of users you ask, by and large the response is the same: most software sucks. We remain very bad at managing software development. We are also told "..developers are still the best source of software managers". Rubbish! There are certainly cases where developers have become good software development managers. However for the most part, good developers are miserably unhappy and fail to perform well as managers. Developers who become managers often do so because they have false idea of what they will be expected to do. A false idea that’s perpetuated by books like this. On the plus side, the book contains numerous references many of which new project managers would benefit from reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for practicing mgrs
Review: This was very useful for me to get a tactical grip on OO proj mgmt. Has a very good intro and is designed in modules to allow you to read based on your specific role in the group. Always recommend this to customers who are trying to move to iterative development.
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