What the Amazon reviewer said.

Written for team leaders, managers, and programmers alike, Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules is an excellent book on scheduling software development effectively and quickly. McConnell, an experienced software consultant for Microsoft and other companies, convincingly outlines potential hazards in the development process and possible steps for avoiding them. The chapter on classic mistakes will fill some with an overwhelming sense of déj¢Î vu. The first two-thirds of the book are filled with clear-headed takes on topics ranging from scheduling to productivity tools, interspersed with examples, supporting data, and insightful anecdotes. The last section of the book is devoted to "Best Practices," suggestions for more efficient development, each explicitly described and analyzed for potential effectiveness. Since its publication, Rapid Development has developed a reputation for success and earned a place on the desks of software developers everywhere.

What I thought of the book.

At over 600 pages it is not light reading. This book is stuffed full of excillent Development Methodologies and Practices it is probably the best general book I have read on the topic. It is most suited to the Project Manager and possibly Team Leader. It has good information with can be force feed to developers and upper management.

Throughout the book, interesting Case Studies are used to demonstrate points made in the chapter. These examples make the book interesting and entertaining. Plenty of statistics and cross referance information is also provided to reinforce the theorys.

The end of the book is devoted to Best Practices which are state of the art methods to control development, some are common sense others are just good ideas. If you only got this book for the Best Practices section it would still be money well spent.

Conclusion.