Effective Software Project Management Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Many project managers read the PMBOK and received Project Management training. Then they came to manage software development projects. They began to use their new PM tools and, still, many of them failed miserably! The book "Software Project Secrets" by George Stepanek explained why.

This book aims to fill a gap in the software development arena. It?s really the first book which have the goal to set out strategies for the integration of project management and systems development approaches (and the solution to the problem explained in the firt paragraph).

Dr. Wysocky gives 5 SDPM strategies:

- Linear
- Incremental
- Iterative
- Adaptive (taken from Dr. Wisocki book called "Effective Project Management, 3rd Edition" which I read also)
- Extreme

Each strategy have 7 chapters which mostly follows the PMBOK processes. For example: Iterative SDPM Strategy (a summary of the other chapters), The Iterative SDPM Scoping Phase, The Iterative SDPM Planning Phase, The Iterative SDPM Launching Phase, The Iterative SDPM Monitoring and Controlling Phase, The Iterative SDPM Closing Phase, The Iterative SDPM Strategy Summary.

For someone like me, who already read a lot of agile software development and agile project management books, little is really new stuff. But I will benefit a lot from this book, mainly because will be a good reference to teach my students and team members about good software project management.

There are some things which I believe could result in an even more complete book (maybe in the next edition) and which resulted in my 4 stars review. I will give some pointers to someone who want to have a deep treatment of the subjects below:

- The choice of strategies is based mainly in how is our knowledge of the goal and the solution to the project. Dr. Wysocki splits the solution in requirements, functions and features. The problem is there is very little explanation about these different levels of solution. Only on pages 85-87 and 315 we have a small example. But it is not very detailed, even on the dowload area of the book. I believe more and better examples will help a lot, specially to project managers entering the field of software development and to students, to find out how to choose the best strategy for the circumstances given. I believe the book lost a lot of its power because of the little guidance on how to choose the strategy and examples to help identify the situations.

- Sometimes I had the impression of repetition in some chapters. But when I reached the end of the book I saw the impossibility to do otherwise. Some information about each process inevitably repeats.

- The other thing I believe could be helpful is to talk about the importance and how to: estimate software projects,refactoring, unit testing, version control, change management and issue tracking, testing process, etc. To complement this book I recomend "Applied Software Project Management" by Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene and also "Ship it! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects" by Jared Richardson, William Gwaltney.

In summary, a very good book which finally open the stage to the necessity of merging PM and systems development processes. An important book to project managers who really want to do a difference (in favour of the light side of the Force :-) ! ) for the software team they will lead!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Effective Software Project Management

Product Description:
Why another book on software project management?For some time, the fields of project management, computer science, and software development have been growing rapidly and concurrently. Effective support for the enterprise demands the merging of these efforts into a coordinated discipline, one that incorporates best practices from both systems development and project management life cycles. Robert K. Wysocki creates that discipline in this book--a ready reference for professionals and consultants as well as a textbook for students of computer information systems and project management.

By their very nature, software projects defy a "one size fits all" approach. In these pages you will learn to apply best-practice principles while maintaining the flexibility that's essential for successful software development.

Learn how to make the planning process fit the need
* Understand how and why software development must be planned on a certainty-to-uncertainty continuum
* Categorize your projects on a four-quadrant model
* Learn when to use each of the five SDPM strategies--Linear, Incremental, Iterative, Adaptive, and Extreme
* Explore the benefits of each strategic model and what types of projects it supports best
* Recognize the activities that go into the Scoping, Planning, Launching, Monitoring/Controlling, and Closing phases of each strategy
* Apply this knowledge to the specific projects you manage
* Get a clear picture of where you are and how to get where you want to go

Get 34% OFF

Want to read more honest consumer review about Effective Software Project Management now ?