The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives

by Robert L. Glass and Robert N. Britcher

"The author knows whereof he speaks. His material is sound, up-to-date, and appropriate. Robert N. Britcher has inside knowledge on one of the most dramatic software stories of our time." --Robert L.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201433230
• ISBN13: 9780201433234
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A work of art

This is one of the finest books on any subject I have ever had the pleasure of reading. In fact, a savvy publisher might have taken the words in this book, combined them with some high-quality photography, and converted it into a glossy-paged coffee table book without much effort. But alas, we lucky few who have read it will have to do without the stage-dressing, and console ourselves with the beauty of the words themselves.This certainly isn't a "How-To" book, or a quick punch-list to make you a better manager. Rather, it is a thin volume of lyric beauty; a poem to the design and management of software. I would have thought our industry too young yet for a work like this, but Robert Britcher has cobbled together flashes of life from the computing industry ranging from the 60's through the late 90's into a sum larger than its parts.Will reading this book make you a better manager or engineer? I think so -- if only by helping to create a shared history of the software industry, and a vivid and visceral set of lessons from the front lines.

It's like sharing lunchtime with the staff elder.

The insights and recollections in these essays at first discouraged me - as my naive hopes (that software and standards could tame any problem) were dashed.That discouragement (mostly) disappeared when I realized the author was using "worst cases" to make his points clear. I was left with the realization that reasonable people, working on reasonable projects using reasonable rules can accomplish much.

A beautifully written book.

The Limits of Software is eccentric and eloquent. I've never read anything quite like it. Somehow the author has mixed amusing stories, characters and dialogue, and technical material in the right proportion: the book is not just informative, at times it is moving. The book, at 200 pages, reads like a 20-page article; but it lingers like a fine novel.

Not your typical book on software technology

Anyone who has ever written or used software (which includes most of us) will find this a thought-provoking view of what makes the design and management of software systems so complex and costly. And, as an added benefit, it's entertaining.

Excellent

I started reading this book over dinner, couldn't put it down, and ended up finishing it that night. Britcher presents a perspective on computing that is refreshingly different from the usual technocratic point of view. It is nice to see someone who worries about the ethics of this industry for a change, and who doesn't subscribe to the idea that if something is computerized, it must automatically be better. Lot's of thoughtful comments about the state of the industry, software engineering, management, and the psychology and ethics of computing.Highly recommended!