The book focuses on two processes that the author refers to as "technical planning" and "quality planning." They are designed to lead the manager through a technical assessment of the problem to be solved and to proceed from that to the formulation of a traditional resource plan. Enroute, the manager must assess the risks and uncertainties in the project, determine the special features of the system to be built, find ways of dealing with them, and decide how they will manage quality into the software.

As its title suggests, the book is about strategies and planning--not plan execution. The chapter titles illustrate the rich style and refreshing approach: "Grasping the Snake," "Establishing a Quality Culture,""Planning Resources," "The 15 Dilemmas of Software Engineering," and "A Worked Example."