general

This book is all meat and bones for anybody wanting an indepth study of the software development process. If you've graduated passed Steve McConnell's Microsoft press series, then it is time for you to move on to Watts Humphrey. I am tasked to design all the software development processes in my company and Rapid Development (and other McConnell) books only helped me in the initially phases of designing the process. When it comes to nitty gritty details, Humphrey nailed it.

The book is full of sample forms and checklists for the processes you need to put in place. Processes are broken down into generic but specific terms so that it is easily applied/tailored to your company. I was having problems with expressing the interleaving nature of the sets of processes in configuration management (version control, code review, QA, build management, ...). Humphrey's book somehow was able to express that (in other terminologies of course).

Definite must buy for anyone who is part of an SEPG or Project Manager for software development.

This book is crucial to a thorough understanding of software engineering principles. Watts Humphrey is one of the most important forces in the field, and this book is vital to anyone wishing to understand the intricacies of managing a large software development project. Be aware that this book is not easy reading. I would only recommend it for academics, or for the serious practitioner.

In this very useful and stylishly written book Watts S Humphrey, provides practical guidelines for improving the software development and maintenance process. He draws heavily on his experiences at IBM and SEI and focuses on understanding and managing the software process, which according to him is most important and where an organization will face serious problems and where according to him is the best opportunity for significant improvement. He shows how to develop an efficient and effective and most importantly highly successful software process.

By reading this book project Managers, Team Leaders and practicing programmers and analysts will learn how good their own software process is and how they can make their process better, how to do that and where to begin.

As Peter Freeman has written in the foreword this book " ... will help you move beyond the turning point, or crisis, of feeling overwhelmed by the task of managing the software process to understanding what is essential in software management and what you can do about it."

A must read for all software professionals who want design, develop and implement successful software processes in their organizations. A life saver for project leaders and managers whose projects are headed towards diaster. An essential read for students of software engineering.