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Managing Software Quality and Business Risk
John Wiley and Sons Ltd (
September, 1999 )
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Top-notch advice for planning a successful software project  |
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In Managing Software Quality and Business Risk Martyn Ould travels further down the road on which he set out in his excellent 1990 book, Strategies for Software Engineering. His basic premise then, and here, is that successful and achievable plans for software development must be based on both the assessment of risk and the achievement of quality - and the activities that flow from addressing these two concerns. The author has advice for us both as managers and engineers in this very readable book. His arguments are based on sound principles and amplified with excellent real-life anecdotes and experiences that bear out his ideas. He puts you in the driving seat and stands quietly behind you, giving you clear, well-considered, and, above all, practical advice on how to plan your software project. If you enjoyed his first book, this one is definitely for you. If you havent yet read him, then do so now! Slightly disappointingly, the book does not set out to help you run your project. We could well do with such sensible advice here as well. How about another book, Martyn?
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Everything is a risk |
Are you a private investor looking for handy tips on hot stocks? Good luck, but this might not be for you. You wont find get-rick-quick advice in this scholarly work, but you might learn why youre drawn to actively managed funds despite their history of market underperformance. Youll also be enriched by the stories and depth of research here. Another reviewer objects that Bernstein credits the Greek mathematicians with less understanding of probability than a school child. It seemed to me that Bernstein is saying something different: Even if Socrates had a private opinion about the frequency of VI on an astragali roll it wasnt a respectable part of his intellectual framework. He might of known it, but he refused to study it. The author clearly considers his subject the most important in history, and in 330 pages identifies every significant step in the development of *thinking about* risk. In some ways though, the focus is too narrow. It becomes clear towards the end of the book that he has been building up the strands of probability theory as precursors to the taming of risk in modern financial theory. I was hoping that an ambitious work on the history of probability would include the discovery that all of reality is based on chance, but you can search the index for Quantum Mechanics in vain. (However Quant is there - Bernstein himself was once a financial mathematician.) In a subject as huge as risk there will always be more to say, and what is included here makes a cohesive whole whilst being important or interesting in it parts. Ok, maybe you dont love chance as much as me - what you need to know about portfolio theory is in Chapter 12 onwards - youll still have 140 pages of important results. Its even topical, Kahnemans Prospect Theory is covered in detail (and he won the Nobel last year).
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A superb popularisation of a complex subject |
Bernstein has managed to take a subject which at first sight seems intensely boring, and has made it fascinating.Whether or not you have any interest in Risk, Statistics or Econimics, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It is quite simply a "Ripping Yarn". Its greatness lies in Bernsteins ability to tell the story in an accessible manner, without dumbing down the essential facts. Let me say it again: Read this book because it is a fascinating and well written story. The fact you will know a lot more about Risk at the end of it is an incidental, but very welcome, extra.
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