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Reviews |
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"Software Estimation: Demystifying
the Black Art ... is the
definitive book on one of the most difficult aspects of software
development. McConnell is one of the best writers in the
business. In his usual highly readable and practical style, this
book presents a wealth of techniques that can help both
practitioners and project managers do a better -- although of
course never perfect -- job of estimating the size, effort, and
time needed for their next chunk of work." -- Karl Wiegers, Author of Software Requirements and More About Software Requirements
"Once again, [McConnell] has delivered a technical masterpiece
that should be required reading for anyone responsible for
estimation. All of the material is delivered in a sensible
manner that is easy to comprehend. I have gained a significant
amount of insight into the entire concept.... On a scale of one
to five, I would easily give this book a five. It is an
excellent resource for practical advice about software
estimation." "McConnell is one of the most reasonable people in the
industry today, and has a wikipedic knowledge of the literature
on development practices. His contention in this book is that
estimation isn’t as difficult as people think, as long as it’s
approached like any other engineering problem.... The best part
of this book for me is the way McConnell weighs each piece of
evidence. Take, for example, his discussion of the COCOMO II
estimation formula, which includes almost two dozen different
factors calculated from mountains of empirical data collected
over many years. As McConnell points out, many of the factors
require human judgment, which means that COCOMO II’s output is
too easily skewed to be of real practical use. However, it’s a
great way to see what relative effect changes in estimates will
have, since it takes into account the nonlinear relationships
between those factors.... This “appeal to evidence” is what the
snake-oil advocates of UML, agility, and other fads don’t do,
but it is what our profession needs most." "Some authors (very few as far as
I'm concerned) have a consistent record of putting out
extraordinary material - like the Pixars of the software book
industry. Steve McConnell is one of those guys. There's one
thing that CS degree never prepared you for: telling the project
stakeholders just how long the project was going to take (and
getting that number right). Lots of people have written about
project estimation, and most of them, behind the covers, are
just guessing (like most developers and managers) and making
money off BS arithmetic
/ methodology
tricks. Others are just shamelessly pushing methodologies and
tools (and speaking gigs) like a street-corner dealer selling
crack to the distraught masses. Steve McConnell's new book
Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art is what they
should all have written instead. If you have ever thought to
yourself "there's got to be a better way" every
time you give out another project estimate, you need to
read this book. "This book should be read by everyone in [project manager and
software engineer] roles. It provides techniques to estimate
(nay, measure) software effort and lists techniques to
help both devs and managers get a handle on how to run a
project. Fantastic stuff!" -- Tom Carpenter, Author of Wireless# Certification Official Study Guide
"I'd definitely recommend reading it
if you are (or aspire to be) a lead developer or technical
project manager. In fact I think I will definitely
give it a re-read in six months or so again to see what else I
can learn from it as well as to see how my estimation skills
have improved." |
Email me at stevemcc@construx.com.