Review By: David Fern
06/15/2010This book, a collection of case studies covering major aspects of software engineering, doesn't simply contain stories of software projects run amuck. Instead, the authors provide tales of well-intentioned, good project leaders caught off guard in unexpected situations, which many of us can easily relate to and have seen happen in many organizations.

Although this book gives many references that offer additional software-engineering-related information, it is not designed as a "how to" specifying tools, processes, and detailed techniques. It does provide real-life situations you may encounter when managing decisions, requirements, estimates, planning, product, process, risk, people, interactions, stakeholder expectations, and global development. The authors give you tools to assist your decision making but do not claim that one solution is better than another. They do, however, assist you in learning how to take inputs or information that they have to create the best solutions.

The most interesting concept I learned from this book is the PEAK Decision Model, which helps you make the best decision with the information you have. The great thing about this model is that it can be immediately used anywhere in business—even in your personal life—to help you make better decisions. The PEAK Decision Model is simple. Take the inputs from the:

Problem
Experience
Assumptions
Knowledge

And create the outputs:
Solution
Assumed Risk

Using the PEAK Decision Model allows you to document and justify your decisions and the authors give you plenty of practice through the case studies in the book.

The books greatest strength, in my opinion, may also be its greatest opportunity for improvement. The book is easy to relate to if you have some experience in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and provides complete case studies and even includes copies of emails, graphs, and organizational charts, just like you would find at work. But, I felt as though I was reading a college text book full of details, and, therefore, the book is not a quick, easy read. Each section starts with an overview of the topic followed by two case studies, some of which are fourteen pages long followed by nice, thought-provoking questions and exercises that I truly enjoyed. I think that this book would be perfect for a college class to read and discuss as a group. However, if I were to rewrite the book, I would make the case studies a bit quicker and easier read. I got lost in the details a few times.

There are many references to CMM, IEEE, and other standards organizations. Yet as a PMI PMP reading this project management book, I was a bit disappointed that PMI or PMBOK references were not present. However, one of the main concepts present, the Stakeholder Expectation Model, which consists of scope, time, quality, and cost, is very similar to the old PMI Iron Triangle consisting of: scope, schedule, and budget that all contribute to quality.

I recommend this book to my team leaders, test managers, and project managers in software engineering. Keep in mind that those with the most project management experience will get the most from this book as they can more easily relate to the case studies from their own experiences. I will keep this book within arms reach on my shelf because it addresses issues across the entire SDLC. The concepts are timeless, the authors provide me questions I should be answering throughout the lifecycle, and they offer a model that helps me make decisions at every stage of the SDLC.