Review By: Michael Yudanin
04/04/2003This book presents the reader with a variety of topics from the software engineering body of knowledge when the book was written (1996). Guided by the premise that an effective software development process is rooted in the organizational culture, the author familiarizes the reader with the essentials of software project management. These essentials include the requirements process, process improvement philosophies and methods, software development standards, quality assurance essentials, metrics and measurement, and change control. Project management concepts are present throughout the book.

The requirements process is described in detail, including examples of use case techniques and references to the relevant standards. A special chapter (chapter 9) is devoted to the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and its critics. Other standards are also shown, e.g., IEEE standards and ISO 9001 (these days, look for ISO 2000).

Software measurement and metrics are described in chapter 16, followed by a case study in chapter 17. Various other tools also found their way into the book, mainly process related. The book ends with chapters 19 and 20 on action planning for software managers and engineers, which supply practical guidance on the subject. Theories and techniques are supplemented by examples, mainly from the author’s experience with the development groups at Kodak.

Various chapters contain templates of checklists and documents, sample segments of deliverables, and copy-and-paste-into-your-presentation charts. The book includes plenty of references to books and articles, lists of useful sources of knowledge in the software engineering community, and a rich bibliography.

The concept of building the software development culture lays foundations for the development process. That will lead, in turn, to the development of high-quality products that are shaped the way the book is written. It seems that the “actual result” is a sort of map of various sources of the software engineering body of knowledge. Psychological insights and contents, generally expected from a book on organizational culture, are largely absent. On the other hand, as a map the book provides the reader with a good picture of the topics of software engineering methods and techniques.

The advantages of the book include:
- Coverage—The book addresses the majority of essential topics. Be aware that since the book was written in 1996, you will not find recent developments like Extreme Programming.
- References—A rich bibliography and a list of relevant resources.
- Learning emphasis—The author stresses the need for continuous learning, and provides a good starting point. The book has a special chapter on these issues (chapter 4), but doesn’t limit the topic to this chapter only.
- Excellent chapter on CMM—It goes beyond the mere presentation of the maturity model, but puts it into wider context and reviews its critics.

The book has some disadvantages such as:
- Depth—In my opinion, some important topics were glanced over. I would expect a book on software engineering to pay more attention to testing in particular. The discussion on metrics might’ve included more explanations and examples, beyond the specific case study given.
- Context—Some topics seem out of context; e.g., change control appears as a stand-alone piece and not as a part of the configuration management system.
- Quality Definition—Quality is not defined well at the beginning of the book, and without this nail, the whole House of Quality built in the subsequent chapters may confuse the beginner who has no clear idea about software quality.

The book mainly benefits project managers and development managers who have a basic awareness of the need for the development methodology and some basic knowledge in the domain.