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Quality Software Management: Systems Thinking
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Author: Gerald M. Weinberg
List Price: $41.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0932633226
Publisher: Dorset House (January, 1992)
Edition: Hardcover
Sales Rank: 95,506
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 5 out of 5
I wish I'd been introduced to this book when I started
I was recommended to read this book by Mark Barker (an associate of Parity Training) in 1999, after 10 years or so working experience. To say that scales fell from my eyes would be an understatement! Some of the concepts were familiar to me in a slightly different context (e.g. feedback) but Jerry does a superb job of applying some of these techniques in context.
If you've been in "the business" for any length of time you'll also chuckle at your own stupidity when Jerry talks about issues that we've all handled wrongly in the past.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Get it and read it.
This book holds a special place in my heart. It's the first technical book I ever read in one sitting. I've been in the software business since 1983. By the time I encountered Quality Software Management in 1992, I was thoroughly cynical about books about software project management. By and large they were, and still are, preachy tomes that quote unverifiable statistics and make dubious claims about "right" and "wrong" processes. Grow up, guys! Jerry's books are different, and this is my favorite of all of his books. As I read QSM, I didn't feel preached at or condescended to. I felt like, for the first time, someone was offering me ideas for coping with the very difficult problems that face those of us who work on projects where we don't have enough time, enough information, enough skill, or enough money to do a perfect job of anything. Given our limitations, we have to make tradeoff decisions in light of the best understanding of cause and effect we can muster. That's exactly what my organization was trying to do, in '92, when we were competing and winning against Microsoft (oh, they eventually beat us by hiring away the top third of our team, but that's another story). We just thought of ourselves as pragmatists, but when I read QSM I realized that our approach was also scientifically sound. Looking back, I see QSM as one of the handful books in this field that actually helped me to become more expert at my job, and it's the first book I suggest to anyone who is serious about software quality assurance or software project management. Get it and read it.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Mediocre
While I generally like Weinberg's more humanistic take on managing software, sometimes I feel like his lack of rigor is a detriment. His strategies and ideas are all well and I good, I agree with them completely, but his models are often too vague and he usually doesn't provide the beleaguered manager with much to go on besides platitudes. Overall I would say there isn't much (if any) new information in this book. Of course, I guess that depends on what other books you have read prior to this :-)
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