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Summary: Insight into "the state of the art" in software development
Review: I've read hundreds of software books and, for the most part, they all have the same thing in common: they tell you how the world should be. This book is different from those other works in this important respect: it tell you how things ARE. While many books grudgingly admit that most shops are at SEI level I maturity they do not convey the ultimate consequences associated with that state. This book does.
"Why on earth did I let myself get suckered into such a project?" The project described in this cry, of course, is a Death March. It is a project where arbitrary decisions have been imposed like the compression of the schedule or budget, or a cut in the staff. There are many factors that can contribute to a Death March but they all lead to the same end: a failed project.
The book could have been dry and dark, taking an already depressing subject and bludgeoning the reader with analysis or empty assessments. Instead, Yourdon tries to keep things light by including discussions (via EMAIL) he had with contributors at the end of each chapter. Within these notes the many people Yourdon corresponded with during the writing of the book offer their own stories and their own analysis of how Death March projects get started and how people survive them.
Including these correspondences, in their raw form, was a brilliant stroke which put a human, and often entertaining face, on these difficult situations. They are interspersed with other book citations, clearly showing that in Yourdon's mind at least, the simple recollections of these folks are easily on par with any formal, written works.
Yourdon's causal approach does have drawbacks, however. Anytime a conversational style is employed there is a chance it will fall into rumor and innuendo. Yourdon does that occasionally since the distance between anecdotal evidence and half truths is small, but this doesn't detract from the book overall.
Other books provide erudite authority on Project Management and Software Engineering but Yourdon cuts through all that with a single statement. "It's amazing how many software projects take place without anyone having the faintest idea of who the owner is..." This is one of the many clues he provides readers on how to spot a Death March in progress.
Any software manager who wishes to bring maturity to their organization must first understand the problems inherent in their department and indeed most departments. The Death March provides an honest assessment of the state of software engineening today and gives the reader insight and understanding of how things are often allowed to go so terribly, terribly wrong.
This work isn't a substitute for the many good books available on software engineering theory and practice. It does, however, provide a welcome and sometimes comic relief for those of us who have lived through-or are living through-a Death March project. And, while such projects are not likely to disappear anytime soon, any software manager who reads this book will have a better understanding of the challenges associated with them.
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Summary: Essential item for your death-march survival pack
Review: Death March projects seem to be the norm in the software industry. This book explain about how "death march projects" comes about, and how to survive it. While reading this book, I always found the examples given so realistic that I wished that I have read the book before I have graduate from University.Within it, you can also see software project management tips littered throughout the book. They are often found in project management books, but somehow they never got registered in our brains. For example, it talks about "triage". Putting it into simpler teams, it means classifying the features to build into must-do, should-do and could-do. This concept of "scope" have been widely been discussed, but people failed to put them into practice. This is an informative book to understand about "Death Marches". Understanding is the first step into winning the war of "Death March Projects". This is definitely a book that is worth you spending your bucks on.
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Summary: Read It , But Use Your Own Judgement
Review: Yaa, this book gives you a very real life understanding of projects, "doomed to be failed". If you have read this book, you can understand the likely next step in the fateful project. This book should be read once, but use your own judgement in tackling the situation, if unfortunately caught into Death March.
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Summary: Look at the philosophy, not the technology.
Review: Having managed several death march projects before I had even heard of this book, and now being involved in the mother of them all, there is a certain grim satisfaction in recognising one's situation in the title of a book. This is a book for project managers who are faced with the impossible. It prescribes no magic formulae, but assists the often stressed and over-worked PM's brain to calmly consider the symptoms of the current environment and even to admit a laugh or two about the absurdity of it all. As a project manager who has worked mostly in the web environment, I can safely say that the majority of web projects are death march projects - it all depends on the organisation whether they're Mission Impossible or Ugly. Much food for thought for web development projects, in my opinion, and the principles do not date at all.
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Summary: As true today as it was the day I bought it.
Review: I bought this book when it came out in '97. I had read Yourdon's works in college and the title just caught my eye. Well, here it is folks - the year 2000 and some things just don't change. For those of you who have ever been on a death march project, it may have you saying "Has Yourdon been spying on ME at the office? :). It's good to know someone else can relate to what we software development folks go through when we're drafted into one of those blasted things. It's got the humor and important points all in the right mix. This is a must have!
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Summary: Not worth your time to read this one.
Review: Save your money and your time with this software book. Some of his stories are interesting but in the author had nothing to add to what Steve McConnell put into his well researched book "Rapid Development." If you have already read RD there is no reason to read Death March.
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Summary: Accurate and heartfealt
Review: This book does not offer solutions for people involved in "death march" situations (at least, not in my opinion). It does present a greater understanding of the death-march environment and why we find ourselves in it. Ed Yourdon knows his subject, and he speaks clearly and honestly about the state of the industry. In simple terms (and I hope Ed will correct me if I've misunderstood), he presents guidelines for two solutions: shut up and deal with it, or change careers.
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Summary: Good but not entirely convincing.
Review: There are more and more books coming out all the time on how to run your projects and, although the information given in here is good, there's not really anything here that you won't get elsewhere.
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Summary: The real world!
Review: I had to laugh and cry when I read this book. From personal experience I can tell you, the information in this book is real. I had a project, estimated @ 9 months, delivered in 2.5 years! Yup, I got some grey hairs from that one. The original vendor went bankrupt, the second vendor quit, but we got it done. The app runs like a clock, and is a fundamental system for our group. Easy! You decide! If I ever teach a project management course this would be required reading.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Insights
Review: Death March projects are like elephants in the corporate livingroom and exist partly because of the failure to recognize them for what they are. If this book helps you spot, and avoid, even one Death March, it has paid for itself and your time reading it a thousand times over.
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