Death March: The Complete Software Developer's Guide to Surviving 'Mission Impossible' Projects (Yourdon Computing Series) Books
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 005
EAN: 9780130146595
ISBN: 0130146595
Label: Prentice Hall PTR
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: June 15, 1999
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Sales Rank: 703325
Studio: Prentice Hall PTR
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Author provides technology and management insights to the worst IS projects, demonstrating how to maximize your chances of success, and/or how to make sure your career survives them. Softcover. DLC: Computer software--Development.
Amazon.com Review:
Death march projects are becoming increasingly common in the software industry. The symptoms are obvious: The project schedule, budget, and staff are about half of what is necessary for completion. The planned feature set is unrealistic. People are working 14 hours a day, six or seven days a week, and stress is taking its toll. The project has a high risk of failure, yet management is either blind to the situation or has no alternative. Why do these irrational projects happen, and what, other than pure idiocy, leads people to get involved in them?
Edward Yourdon has produced a wise and highly readable book on the entire death march phenomenon and the best way to steer through one. He takes a close look at the types of projects that often become death marches and the corporate politics and culture that typically produce them; Yourdon helps you examine your own motivations and those of corporate managers who enable death marches to take shape.
Much of Death March is about the human element of highly stressful projects. The author's plain-spoken observations on the dysfunctional organization--the Machiavellian politics, naive optimism, lust for power, fear, and sheer managerial stupidity that guide so many death marches--make for a refreshing change from other project management books. You'll also find much practical advice to help you survive, everything from negotiating with upper management to breathing life into faltering projects. He'll even help you determine if you should look for another job.
If you've ever worked in a death march situation or been a client of a company addicted to death march management, this book will help you understand what happened. More importantly, it will help you prepare for future encounters with death marches. Death March is highly recommended for anyone involved in software development.
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
Definitely a must-read for anyone involved with project or technical management.
Yourdon exposes a series of reasons that move organizations into death marches, and also the reason why many employees still embark on those projects.
He also tries to propose some solutions, although many times you will be facing a no-win scenario.
An short book and an eye opener for those who don't have time to read (beacause they are already involved in a death march)
... Read More
Rating:  -
Mediocre. Uninspired writing, much like his other books. I keep hoping for better but he never delivers. About 200 pages, padded by notes for each chapter that repeat things in the main text.
Occasional interesting points, but not enough to make it a keeper. Borrow it if you can for a quick read.
Rating: -
I was required to read this book for a Masters-level class in project maanagement. Overall, it provides good insight into the challenges facing IT projects and why they often fail. At times Yourdon shows a slight engineering know-it-all slant in his writing, but in the end Yourdon accurately portrays the fact that IT projects alone do not provide panacea for organizational, social, and business problems.
Rating:  -
The very first page of this book defines what the author means by a "Death March"; any project whose project parameters exceeds the norm by more than fifty percent. In essence, this book is meant to help you in those unpleasant circumstances when you've got half the amount of time, half the amount of staff, or half the amount of money that you would rationally need to finish a project.
Unsurprisingly, Yourdon advises anyone reading the book to avoid these projects as much as possible, ... Read More
Rating: -
It is mostly a synopsis of ideas from several better books (e.g. Peopleware). I'd suggest reading them instead. Of course, the bibliography from this book is very useful. It is a decent guide to what resources are available for dealing with Death March projects.
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