Goals of the Book

This is a practical book. This book describes the specific tools, techniques, and practices that a project manager needs to put in place in order to run a software project or fix an ailing one. A project manager can use this book to diagnose and fix the most serious problems that plague software projects. It contains essential project management tools, techniques, and practices, which have been optimized to be as straightforward and easy to implement as possible. It also contains advice for avoiding the problems that a project manager will typically encounter when bringing these tools into an organization.

By the time you have read this book, you should be able to:

• Define the scope of your project

• Estimate the effort required to do the work and schedule your project

• Conduct thorough reviews of documents and code

• Gather software requirements and create specifications

• Effectively manage the design, programming, and testing of the software

• Provide guidance if your project runs into quality problems

• Manage an outsourced project

• Make effective changes to the way projects are run in your organization

We have been researching and implementing these tools, techniques, and practices throughout our combined careers. Each of them is the culmination of years of trial and error in many different organizations across multiple industries. Every one of these practices is the solution to a specific, chronic problem. Many people opt to live with the problem, because the solution seems too complicated. Our ultimate goal in writing this book is to help you build better software.

Often, the original idea (before we optimized it) came from a book that we read to solve a specific problem that we encountered on a software project (just like you are doing right now!). References to some of the books that we found most helpful appear in the text in order to help you learn more.