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Getting Results from Software Development Teams
by Lawrence J. Peters
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Microsoft Press (2008-06-08)
ISBN: 0735623465
EAN: 9780735623460
Dewy Decimal #: 005.1068
Paperback: 400 pages
SKU: T081811-5283
Condition: New
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Learn best practices for software development project management and lead your teams and projects to success. Dr. Lawrence Peters is an industry-recognized expert with decades of experience conducting research and leading real-world software projects. Beyond getting the best developers, equipment, budget, and timeline possible Peters concludes that no factor is more critical to project success than the manager s role. Drawing on proven practices from allied industries such as business, psychology, accounting, and law, he describes a broader project-management methodology with principles that software managers can readily adapt to help increase their own effectiveness and the productivity of their teams. Unlike other books on the topic, this book focuses squarely on the manager and shows how to get results without adopting philosophies from Genghis Khan or Machiavelli. (There is mention of Godzilla, however.) Packed with real-world examples and pragmatic advice, this book shows any software development manager new or experienced how to lead teams in delivering the right results for their business.
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Customer Reviews
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Manager-focused guide to great software results
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-08-17
This book is a guide for current and aspiring software project managers who would like to bring more determinism into their projects. Peters shows many statistics early on about the vital role of the project manager on the success of projects, and my own experiences agree with those. A good manager can help a mediocre team succeed; a mediocre manager will lead even a great team to failure.
There is fairly deep treatment of a variety of planning styles, project lifecycle models, and even information about how to best motivate your team. I particularly enjoyed the ties between what motivates people (like early involvement with planning and release date specification) and how that is an aspect of a variety of different planning frameworks. He also does a great job of providing specific examples of how to let the team, company, and situation help define the right process, rather than always doing exactly the same thing.
The only thing I didn't enjoy as much was the treatment of some of the more in-depth planning models. It felt like there was a lot of detail, but I still didn't come away with a good idea of where to get started with them if I wanted to use them immediately. A summary section at the end of each presentation with pointers to good "how to do it" books and tools (as opposed to the existing references to the definitions of them) would help. Also, some of the relative terms like small, medium, and large projects that he used to help with decision-making could use some clarification. After years of working at Microsoft, I still consider anything under a quarter million lines of code small, and it takes about 20 million to make a large project. I don't know how those numbers relate to his breakdowns.
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Software project manager? You will love this book!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-07-31
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dr. Peters' book is the best project management book I have ever read (I've read quite a few). He has an easy style of explaining things, probably from his seminar delivery experiences. The book offers practical advice as well as explaining more complex tools, methods, and metrics. His real-life stories are quite good - many made me smile (been there, did that, seen that), but they also help make his points memorable.
This is a very serious book - essential reading for software project managers. Dispels the myth (or sometimes a personal self-delusion) that project managers just happen to be born with natural skills.
Although software project centric, it is broad enough to be of interest to anyone involved with technology projects at any level. It is recommended for upper management who might be interested in installing a "culture" of consistent project management disciplines (and successes). It might also be useful for HR personnel in screening candidates. Development team members will also benefit.
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