- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (7 Dec 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0137414064
- ISBN-13: 978-0137414062
- Product Dimensions: 24.2 x 18.5 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,197,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
This book will identify problems encountered in the software field throughout the software life cycle. It will define the problem, its severity and frequency, its causes, etc.;and shows how the problems can be fixed or prevented. A handbook format will be featured throughout.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This is a wide ranging, intelligent and occassionally provocative review of the ills of software development practice. It takes its structure from the 'Control of Commuincable Diseases in Man'. This works well - easy to navigate, thoughful analysis, often backed up with data.
This book should probably be considered as obsolescent now, but it has so much useful information and cues for valuable checklists I believe it's a classic - I'm baffled why it hasn't been reviewed 'til now.
This book should probably be considered as obsolescent now, but it has so much useful information and cues for valuable checklists I believe it's a classic - I'm baffled why it hasn't been reviewed 'til now.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
'Cure' problems with your Software Development Life Cycle
21 Mar 1997
Format:Paperback
The author proposes that we categorize software development risks like the Center for Disease Control categorizes disease. He builds on this theme by discussing risk from the perspective of symptoms, susceptibility, prevention, and therapies. The information is excellent., and is not available in this compact format from any other source (at least that I know of). This book is a 'must' for any manager intent on improving the system development life cycle. /// This book is primarily directed toward knowledgeable software professionals. It assumes you have a good understanding of development theory. Unfortunately, since the book was written in 1993, some information (related to vendor tools and products) is a little long in the tooth. That is the only reason I didn't give the book a rating of '10'. /// I would love to see a yearly update that included new symptoms, new 'diseases', additional therapies, and updated lists of vendor 'cures'. Overall content is first-rate and very relevant, not theoretical. The hard part -- detailed therapy -- is properly left to the reader, but several options are presented
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Could be updated
25 May 2002
Format:Paperback
The book is a great resource for brainstorming potential risks to your projects and strategies to handle them. Almost all are timeless. However, the book is 10 years old and much has changed over the last 10 years. The Internet is a prime example. This new medium has most of the risks of legacy systems, but the Internet brings new possibilities and new expectations.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Still quite valid in all respects (unfortunately)
26 Aug 2002
Format:Paperback
While an update to this book would be nice, the fact is that the major risks cited in this 1994 classic continue to be risks in 2002. What I like about this book is the way it's organized and structured. Jones starts with two chapters that highlight the most common and the most serious software risks. In that respect the essence of the book is provided up front.
The rest of the book is a catalog of the top 43 risks, presented in a quasi-pattern format (that predates the GoF patterns movement), using a medical metaphor, based on the US Public Health Service publication titled "Control of Communicable Diseases in Man" as the pattern. The format is highly effective and intuitive, and also plants a subtle notion that the risk can be cured. The risks are arranged alphabetically for easy reference and range from Artificial Maturity Levels to Slow Technology Transfer, with the usual suspects that have plagued software engineering since its inception: corporate politics, excessive schedule pressure, low user satisfaction, malpractice (project management and technical staff), silver bullet syndrome ... sound familiar? In my opinion, until cures are found for the risks cited in the book we, as a profession, don't need an updated list of more.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who manages software engineering projects or processes. If you want a more condensed version of this book get Jones' "Software Systems Failure and Success", which was published in 1996. That book distills critical success (or failure, depending on your perspective) factors into a manageable group of twelve attributes. It doesn't fully replace this book, but does augment it well.
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