13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Improve Team Efficiency, 18 May 2006
By Daniel McKinnon "Dan" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Applied Software Project Management (Paperback)
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
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book with real-word experience, 21 April 2006
By ueberhund "ueberhund" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Applied Software Project Management (Paperback)
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.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great process and management tool!, 2 Dec 2005
By O. Fishel "Frequent project manager" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Applied Software Project Management (Paperback)
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.