This book’s subtitle, “building a competitive software capability,” is an accurate description. In this case, the authors do the building with Team Software Process (TSP). Watts Humphrey has written several books about TSP. The basic one [1] describes how TSP is done. The present book is not about the mechanics of TSP. Instead, it consists of Humphrey’s observations about how to best manage software design projects.

Software design is knowledge work. We must manage knowledge work differently from how we manage other kinds of work. Software design does have wide applicability, since software is an integral part of most modern design projects.

Managers of software design projects must lead, coach, and support. Management of knowledge work requires trust that knowledge workers and teams will manage themselves. Part of leadership is building a culture of trust. Management must ensure that knowledge workers have training in self-management.

Knowledge workers are motivated by setting their own goals and meeting those goals. Teams are motivated “by negotiating rational and businesslike plans.” Project management must be guided by data. Especially important are data on previous project performance, and accurate data about the progress of an ongoing project. A useful measure of progress is earned value, the portion of the total job that a task encompasses. The value is only earned when the task is completed.

The book emphasizes the importance of quality. A measure of quality is the appraisal-to-development ratio: time spent inspecting divided by time spent developing. Having a developer personally review her or his work and having colleagues also inspect it before release improves quality, and significantly reduces testing time.

The first chapter of this book focuses on creative destruction, illustrated by experiences at IBM and at Softtek, the largest independent information technology (IT) service provider in Latin America. The second chapter discusses the need for bureaucracy, and how bureaucratic procedures can become intrusive. The next chapter discusses characteristics of knowledge work, and of knowledge-working teams. The next chapter reviews how management principles were developed 100 years ago, and why these principles do not apply to knowledge work. Motivating knowledge workers is the subject of the next chapter. The chapter that follows describes how great knowledge-working teams are built, partly by having management negotiate plans with the team. Another aspect is building self-directed teams. The next chapter discusses using data to manage, and the chapter that follows addresses the development of a quality strategy. The final chapter discusses leadership, and how an essential aspect of leadership is defining standards of excellence and insisting that they be met.

The book concludes with five appendices that address specific questions: “Will TSP Work in My Organization?” “Getting Started,” “Expanding,” “Using Data,” and “Sustaining.” The authors present important ideas here. The presentation is clear and nonthreatening, and is accessible to a person with a technical background. The examples involve software, but the lessons apply to most modern design efforts. As a result, the book deserves a wide audience. I expect that some readers will want more detail, but it may be that specific techniques do not translate easily from project to project.