Jimali Software Engineering

This book sets out to help managers of software development teams become great managers. It does this by the use of examples and explanation. The book uses a ficticious software development team and it's newly appointed manager to illustrate the management concepts. The reader watches as the new manager arrives to transform a underachieving software team into a productive team. The script is obviously canned, but it does illustrate the message that the authors are trying to send. I can remember having similar discussions with my managers over the years, so I believe that the script is reasonably accurate of the day to day issues that teams and their managers face. The authors address a number of key management issues, focussing on improving the communication, morale and skills of the team through career development and mentoring. The authors provide lots of advice for these topics so there is plenty for the reader to absorb. Each chapter is arranged so there is an example in the life of the software team followed by a discussion of the example and rationale for the actions performed by the manager. I found this layout to be quite good for me to learn from. The most useful section of the book is the chapter describing the management techniques that can be used. There is a lot of useful information in this chapter along with guidelines for using each of the techniques. There are also templates that can be used along with the guidelines. The authors have described thirteen techniques for practising great management ranging from problem solving, to delegation, to goal setting, to giving effective feedback, and finally to my personal favourite - running meetings effectively. This list is by no means complete, but it gives a good indication of the breadth of topics covered. The book is well written and easy to follow. I like to highlight important passages in the book, and this book is well highlighted. One thing I didn't like is that the background of the side bar descriptions is too dark, which makes it harder to see the highlighted passages, but that is a minor thing. The bibliography at the end of the book cites works for quite a number of authors with various fields of expertise, and is not just limited to authors in the software field. What I liked

1. The techniques for practising great management
2. Easy to read narrative of the management of a software development team
3. The organisation of the book

What I disliked

1. Side bars are too dark.
2. The resolution of the fictious software development team issues seems a little to easy, something not born out my experience.

Recommendations Most of the managers I've worked with have been mediocre or bad which and the results have been a lot of failed projects and unhappy software engineers. I became a project manager because I believed that I could do a better job than the majority of managers that I've worked for. I wish that I had this book when I first started out in management because I have found it to be full of information that would help me to be a better manager. I would recommend this book to people considering a management career, and those actively working in management. I intend to put the techniques in this book into effect at the earliest opportunity.