The Software Project Managers Handbook or Why Firms Succeed

The Software Project Manager's Handbook: Principles That Work at Work

Author: Dwayne Phillips

Software project managers and their team members work individually towards a common goal. This book guides both, emphasizing basic principles that work at work. Software at work should be pleasant and productive, not just one or the other.

This book emphasizes software project management at work. The author's unique approach concentrates on the concept that success on software projects has more to do with how people think individually and in groups than with programming. He summarizes past successful projects and why others failed. Visibility and communication are more important than SQL and C. The book discusses the technical and people aspects of software and how they relate to one another.

The first part of the text discusses four themes: (1) people, process, product, (2) visibility, (3) configuration management, and (4) IEEE Standards. These themes stress thinking, organization, using what others have built, and people. The second part describes the software management principles of process, planning, and risk management. Part three discusses software engineering principles, the technical aspects of software projects. The fourth part examines software practices giving practical meaning to the individual topics covered in the preceding chapters. The final part of this book continues these practical aspects by illustrating a sample project through seven distinctive documents.

Booknews

Project visibility and communication, proper configuration management, the use of standards, and a balance of people, process, and product are key in this approach to effective software management. The author describes the stages of the software development cycle--from requirements gathering and analysis, planning, and risk management to design, integration and testing, and maintenance. The final chapter presents case studies using waterfall, evolutionary, and spiral process models. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
Pt. 1	Elements of Effective Software Management	1
Ch. 1	What Makes a Good Software Manager?	3
Ch. 2	Four Basics that Work	13
Ch. 3	What Doesn't Work and Why	35
Ch. 4	Managing a Project Day by Day	43
Pt. 2	The Development Life-Cycle: Early Stages	77
Ch. 5	Requirements	79
Ch. 6	Planning	123
Ch. 7	Risk Management	175
Pt. 3	The Development Life-Cycle: Middle to Late Stages	191
Ch. 8	Design	193
Ch. 9	Integration and Testing	217
Ch. 10	Software Maintenance	243
Pt. 4	Applying the Principles	259
Ch. 11	Cookbook	261
App. A	Documents for the OPT Project	303
App. B	Configuration Management	345
App. C	Structured Analysis and Design	361
App. D	Annotated Bibliography	373
	Index	377
	About the Author

Interesting book: Indian Grocery Store Demystified or Noble Rot

Why Firms Succeed

Author: John A Kay

When John Kay's Foundations of Corporate Success first appeared in the U.K., it commanded the attention of the corporate world--and drew widespread praise. The Financial Times hailed it as "a powerfully argued book, which casts a fresh light on a range of practical business challenges." And Business Age wrote, "You must read John Kay's new book Foundations of Corporate Success. Kay is currently the best management theorist in Britain, bar none.... He is a rare find."
Now John Kay has produced an American edition of this landmark book. In this freshly revised volume, Kay applies his groundbreaking theories to the U.S. experience, illustrating them with examples of success and failure in the American market. For too long, he writes, managers have chased after the latest fad in business planning and strategy, beguiled by military analogies and the demand for overarching vision. Success, he believes, should not be measured by organizational size or market share, but by the added value--the amount that output exceeds the input of raw materials, payroll, and capital. Corporate strategy should be aimed at this basic goal, beginning with the question, "How can we be different?" Kay identifies four key ingredients: innovation, reputation (especially in the form of brands), strategic assets (government mandated monopolies or other measures which restrict market access by competitors), and architecture (the relationships between a company and its employees, suppliers, and customers). Success comes not when managers drive through a towering vision of the company's destiny, but when they act on their organization's specific capabilities and advantages--especially in the key area ofarchitecture. Honda, he notes, captured a third of the American motorcycle market within five years. No vision was required for this success, he writes: Honda simply did what it did best (making a simple, inexpensive product), followed by careful attention to the architecture of its business ties to distributors, customers, etc. He ranges through industries from airlines to retail clothing, pointing out the reasons for successes and failures. Kay also draws on game theory to underscore the importance of stable, long-term relationships.
Other writers have hit upon some of these points, the Financial Times noted: "But none has explored them as thoroughly as Kay, who succeeds in marrying an authoritative grasp of economic, legal, and sociological theory with an impressively detailed knowledge of contemporary business practice." This volume transforms Kay's theoretical and practical knowledge into a powerful tool for today's American business manager.

BookList

Kay is a professor of economics at the London Business School. In 1993 he wrote "Foundations of Corporate Success", in which he argued that success could be measured as added value or as the difference between the value of a firm's output and the cost of its input. He also identified four areas of potential strength that lead to success: reputation, ability to innovate, market position or strategic assets, and relational contracts or "architecture." His book was the subject of spirited debate in the British business press, with Robert Heller noting in "Management Today" that several of Kay's "successful" examples had recently faltered, and with the "Economist" faulting Kay for suggesting that the study of management could be "scientific." Many other reviews, however, were quite favorable. He now offers this slightly revised, shortened, and "Americanized" version of his earlier book. Such American businesses as WalMart, Caterpillar, and the Boston Celtic (!) have been added as examples, and a consideration of the way business is transacted internationally is included.