PMFORUM Breaking News

O’Reilly Media has announced the publication of “Applied Software Project Management”, a new book by Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene. In their new book, Stellman and Greene share tools, techniques, and practical advice for getting software projects on track and keeping them there.

Many organizations have problems delivering quality software that's finished on time and meets user needs. Fortunately, the root causes of these problems are few and easily understood. Solutions to the problems have been discovered, explained, and tested in thousands of software organizations around the world. For the most part, the solutions are straightforward and easy to implement. And yet, software projects continue to fail. The high incidence of failure might seem puzzling to some or even preordained, but longtime software developers Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene know that there are tried and true techniques that can help any project manager.

"Jenny and I have been talking for years about what makes projects fail, and how to change the way we build software so that our projects succeed," explains Stellman (pictured). "When we were working together, we'd spend hours trying to figure out the root causes of our problems. And then, after we moved on to different organizations, we saw the same exact problems over and over again! We talked to a lot of people, and read a lot about project management techniques and practices. We expected to just fix our own problems, but discovered that everyone seems to suffer from the same ones. Something had to be done about this, and that was the inspiration for the book."

"We know that many software projects fail, and most projects fail the same way," Greene adds. "But instead of taking that as a call to arms, a rallying cry to avoid the common pitfalls and well-understood problems, a lot of software developers and managers take comfort in the fact that they're surrounded by lots of other failing projects!"

Stellman and Greene are convinced that failure is entirely avoidable. In "Applied Software Project Management" they take a practical approach, describing the specific tools, techniques, and practices needed to run a successful software project or fix an ailing one. A project manager can use the book to diagnose and fix the most serious problems that plague software projects. They also share advice on avoiding the problems that a project manager might encounter when bringing these tools into an organization.

Applied Software Project Management; Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene; ISBN: 0-596-00948-8, 308 pages, $39.95 US, $55.95 CA; order@oreilly.com; 1-800-998-9938 ;1-707-827-7000 ; http://www.oreilly.com; 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. More information on the book can be found at: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/appliedprojectmgmt/reviews.html. The book's companion web site is at: http://www.stellman-greene.com/aspm/. For more information about the book, including table of contents, index, author bios, and samples, see: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/appliedprojectmgmt/.

O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly has been a chronicler and catalyst of leading-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism. Visit http://www.oreilly.com/. O'Reilly is a registered trademark of O'Reilly Media, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.