Review By: Mark L. Krug
12/01/2005"Software Endgames" is a wonderful book. This technical book is surprisingly entertaining. The author covers all the important areas of quality assurance and process improvement. The information is well organized, straight to the point, and does not attempt to force concepts down the reader's throat. The author obviously has a good understanding of both the industry trends and the typical development lifecycle bottlenecks and hurdles. He makes the reader feel as though they come from common ground, and share the same frustrations and triumphs.

So much material is covered in what seems like such a short book. The triage and change control chapter is of particular interest as this is the area that many companies have the most trouble managing. The topic of release criteria is covered very well and would be helpful to any organization that currently does not have such criterion. Readers will find the book to be a valuable addition to their library, and I would recommend it to software development professionals involved in all areas of the software development lifecycle.

The recommendations are realistic and more grounded than most books written on this subject matter. Because it is written with short time frames and limited resources in mind, I find the information to be practical and realistic for today's software development environment. Current rapid development and short project timeframes often pose quite a challenge to quality assurance, process improvement, and testing professionals. This book shows that it is possible to implement quality practices and processes into the development lifecycle without sacrificing valuable development time.

The author's writing style feels more conversational rather than like a technical book. The chapters flow together and cover areas of particular interest. Adequate emphasis is placed on each area within the chapters, and the examples help to illustrate the subject matter. The author also gives plenty of references to more information. The charts, graphs, tables, flow diagrams, and sample checklists all helped to solidify the subject matter.

If you are looking for a fast, efficient, and effective way to inject quality into your projects this book will certainly kick-start those efforts. "Software Endgames" is informative, entertaining, and sufficiently covers all areas of quality assurance and process improvement.