This books is the next step in the evolution of Dr. Barry Boehm's seminal work, Software Engineering Economics (it was NOT written by Dr. Boehm, however). It provides a logically laid out format that examines measurement at each stage of the development life cycle. I was impressed with the attention paid to testing and V&V. I have not tried the software that comes with the book (book includes a CD ROM with a product called PAMPAS); however, I view the software as an added bonus. It is certainly not required to gain an extradorinary amount of knowledge from reading the book from cover to cover. Highly recommended!