In this book, aimed primarily at IT managers, Roy Miller presents us with many of the daily truths of the development cycle and social interactions that most of us have surely seen in the IT world. He admits to having fallen into the same classical mindset that plague many development teams at one time or another, and points out why this doesn't work well for the IT world. Miller expounds his somewhat revolutionary and alarming ideas coming at them from many angles to give complete coverage of the reasons why old habits are unsuccessful and new methods are required, most of all a new mindset for the manager who is central to successful project completion. He has included many references and quotations from other authors in complexity theory and business management to back up his point of view.

Miller prefers to grow software as an iterative process, including the whole group involved in any specific system project, stressing open lines of communication of a less hierarchical nature. He suggests that agile software development methods like "XP" (No relation to Microsoft), "ASD," or "Scrum" are probably more likely to produce better results than the typical closely structured top-down development methods most commonly adhered to today.

The book, written in plain English, is easily understood; unfortunately, in expounding his ideas, he has succumbed to the problem many software systems avoid: redundancy. Miller has a point but his presentation is not concise and tends to be tedious. This book is worth reading but it is mainly a "primer" leading to a new methodology or way of thinking. It tells you what doesn't work in software development, but does not quite say what does. Gloss over a friend's copy before purchasing your own.

Miller co-authored Extreme Programming Applied: Playing to Win with Ken Auer, also published by Addison Wesley Professional.