Principles of Software
Engineering Management
Authors: Tom Gilb & Susannah Finzi (Editor)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co (April 1988) ISBN: 0201192462 442 pages.
Buy the book Now
I hold the opinion that good software testing and quality principles will of necessity, change the way that software is engineered.
Tom Gilb addresses some of the key thinking and methods that are required to produce quality products in an elegant and pragmatic way in this easy to read book.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Tom as a student in one of his workshops in Washington. Recognising him to be someone worth listening to in the realm of software engineering and quality. He is a keen and active thinker and doer.
This book did not disappoint. It is divided into three parts.
Part 1: Explains the critical success factors for projects and includes discussions of:
- Specification using results-oriented quality andresource metrics.
- Designing and evaluating solutions
- Evolutionary planning and delivery
- Using inspection to increase productivity and minimize defect injection and propagation in early project stages.
Part 2: Offers guidelines and a case study to help the reader implement the methods.
Part 3: Demonstrates that the methods can improve motivation, deadline pressure, productivity and reliability. Also particularly helpful in this section, are ways to quantify non-functional system attributes such as availability, maintainability, usability, integrity and others.
Building software? Get this book. But you will have to take ownership of the thinking behind it and then extend the thinking into some of your own ideas.
Wayne Mallinson
What Other Reviewers Say
This book overall received an above average rating. Eight reviewers had the following to say: “Sound ideas, but tedious to read”, “Simply the best book on software development I have read”, “Good but limited”, “Good discussion of evolutionary development” and “Add this to your bookshelf”.