This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

Results-Based Software Management: Achieve Better Results with Finite Resources

Effective software development is no longer merely an IT concern: today, it is crucial to the entire enterprise. However, businesspeople are often unprepared to make informed decisions about software initiatives. The Economics of Iterative Software Development will prepare them. Drawing on decades of experience, the authors demonstrate how to utilize practical, economics-based techniques to plan and manage software projects for maximum return on technology investment.

The authors begin by dispelling widespread myths about software costs, and explaining why traditional, “engineering-based” software management introduces unacceptable inefficiencies in today’s development environments. Next, they show business and technical managers how to combine the principles of economics and iterative development to achieve optimal results with limited resources. Using their techniques, you can build systems that enable maximum business innovation and process improvement–and implement software processes that allow you do so repeatedly and consistently.

Highlights include:  

• Why organizations must start managing software development as a core business competency

• How results-based management combines the best of iterative methods and economic principles

• How to repeatedly quantify the value your project is delivering and to quickly correct your course as needed

• How to reduce software project size, complexity, and other “project killers”

• How to identify and eliminate software development processes that don’t work

• How to improve development processes, reduce rework, mitigate risk, and identify inefficiencies

• How to create more proficient teams by improving individual skills, team interactions, and organizational capability

• Where to use integrated, automated tools to improve effectiveness

• What to measure, and when: specific metrics for project inception, elaboration, construction, and transition

• How to measure individual projects embedded in broader programs or technical initiatives

• How to change your software development culture to make the most of this book’s techniques

The Economics of Iterative Software Development will help both business and technical managers make better decisions throughout the software development process–and it will help team and project leaders keep any project or initiative on track, so they can deliver more value faster.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 5 Ratings

Solid discussion on business value of iterative versus waterfall development - 2009-07-01
Reviewer Rating:
This is a lean book (small size, only 170 pages) which attempts to help managers and decision makers move to iterative approaches over waterfall. The book's well written and has some good, thought-provoking discussion in it.

You won't find discussions of specific methodologies in this book, but you will find repeated emphasis on critical concepts like delivering running systems over useless documentation (not ignoring documentation, mind you, but delivering the right amount of it). Doing the right amount of planning at the project's start is also emphasized: avoiding over-architecting and big design up front.

It struck me that much of the authors' definition of "iterative" development is subtly scattered around the book. It's not always In Your Face, and that's actually OK because you're able to better focus on their deeper points.

The economics part of the book's title comes through some good discussion on ensuring you're delivering business value, plus an entire section on measuring your project's success. There's good discussion in those sections to help you understand opportunity cost (if I do this, what else am I unable to do?), net present value, and a great example on prioritizing features based on their value to the business.

Some things in the book are a little vague for my tastes, but the authors did a nice job of keeping the book brief, concise, and on target.

Overall it's a very good, useful read.

A good book but lacking on the 'Economics' side - 2009-05-31
Reviewer Rating:
"The Economics of Iterative Software Development" gave me some excitement, thinking there was finally a concise reference from experts giving examples of projects they participated on, why they failed (with a breakdown of specific areas) and how the different aspects of developing iteratively resolved these issues in future projects. - Unfortunately I was slightly disappointed.

The first chapter is interesting and uses statistics from reputable sources such as the Standish Report. However, the remainder of the book is more of a Project Management guide for both experienced and junior project managers (and project owners) to determine why Iterative Development will work in the software industry.

The authors clearly have experience and this shows. The Appendix `Getting Started With Iterative Project Management' is good and steps through the requirements of setting this process up. I especially like how the authors give advice on communicating business reasons to the team, something that is largely obfuscated in organizations.

However, some chapters are just too small! Four pages on Automation! This is one of the largest economic gains in the development lifecycle. I would have liked to have seen concrete examples of which parts of the development lifecycle they automated and how much time or money was saved.

There are some points in this book I would question mainly:
-"Test coverage should be 100% of all scenarios." If this refers to all testing then it is actually uneconomical to get Unit Testing to 100%.
-Most of the cost of software is in post-release maintenance, yet nothing is discussed about this. The authors state "Achieving results is more important than performing activities as part of a process". - I'm sure this has always been the case but it is WHAT processes we need to concentrate on. For example; if I create a deliverable on time but it is not maintainable, is this acceptable?
- One huge economic drain is the YAGNI (You Ain't Gonna Need It) principle where I have seen reports of up to 50% of features in software never used and most never asked for. Yet again, there is nothing on the economies of this.

Finally, the authors praise modern software engineering. Any reader of Brooks' Mythical Man Month (an excellent book and one they recommend) will know that the issues that plagued the software industry 45 years ago are still largely apparent.
Iterative development is not a modern way of thinking as projects have used it over the last 30 years. However the techniques used in implementing this strategy have been lacking. The techniques in the book are largely recognized as being somewhat successful. But in my opinion we have a very long way to go.

To summarize, I would say, a good book for Project Managing teams using Iterative Development techniques but sadly lacking on the Economies of the subject.

economics and development for managers - 2009-05-17
Reviewer Rating:
The title of "The Economics of Iterative Software Development - Steering Toward Better Business Results" jumped out at me since I'm a software developer at a bank. Software and economics in the same title - cool!

The book is what I call good airplane reading. It's interesting to read, easy to read without a whole pile of focus, can be read in a few hours and doesn't physically weigh to much. The book is mainly geared towards software development managers. Particularly those who want to being iterative development or make their projects more iterative.

The economics comes in through the model of COCOMO, a number of graphs and formulas like net present value. It's not the kind of economics that you have to be an economist to understand. Or even like math for that matter.

In addition to the economics, the book covers things like factors for resistance to change. I particularly liked the section on measurements and how people adjust their over/under reported based on how they think the measurement will be used. I also like the appendix listing the top ten books for managers (like Peopleware) and why to read each one.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. I think it is a good book to either show your manager or to read to get a feel for the criteria important to management when selling an idea. And without having to read a whole project management book at that.

Both business and software collections will welcome this - 2009-10-13
Reviewer Rating:
Walker Royce, Kurt Bittner and Mike Perrow's ECONOMICS OF INTERATIVE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: STEERING TOWARD BETTER BUSINESS RESULTS provides software development libraries with a strong software management guide discussing how business and technical managers can blend economics and integrative development to receive the best from limited budgets. From improvement in development to using automated tools to improve effectiveness, both business and software collections will welcome this.

Reviw of Software Development book - 2009-06-03
Reviewer Rating:
This book was shipped to me quickly. It is to be used as part of the readings for a Software Engineering course this fall. While the text is directed towards the economics of software development, it provides a lot of background for college students.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Software Engineering

Sub-Categories:
Software Engineering > Management