Finance-Software

Have you ever wondered how the teams at Microsoft work? This book is an inside glimpse into how a work group there operates. It is not a comprehensive view of Microsoft' and in fact each group could be said to have its own unique dynamics, but this book will provide a brief and useful view of the process of creating and shipping a product at Microsoft. This book follows several members of a group within a now defunct section of Microsoft. They were creating a product, and the book documents each person's feelings, opinions, and unique perspectives on getting their own jobs done' and how they have to work together to accomplish the ultimate goal of creating a product. Microsoft employees, it is shown, have a great deal of personal freedom and latitude in doing their jobs, but when it comes to working together in a team, their very idiosyncratic personalities often conflict. Add to this a very strange but not surprising element of artists versus programmers versus project managers. Add yet more' regular Microsoft employees versus contract employees. Whether the friction and problems the book conveys are real or not, they are perceived by many employees, which affects the work environment. An interesting aspect of the business model and organizational chart is that the employees are only a few levels (3 or 4) away from Bill Gates (or the highest level of the company). Most people at some point in their careers are required to present their work to Gates (or equivalent level) at some point. The book depicts Gates as a very temperamental and demanding person who will look at something which is next to perfect, get angry about its flaws, and yell at the creators insisting on something much better. And then when the presentation is over and the creators leave, Gates says something about how brilliant it was, but if people think he did not like it, they will strive to make it more perfect. The book might be dated by now. Organizations change a great deal in just a few years. Microsoft was not being threatened by the Justice Department when this book was written, and although MS was a huge company then it was not as big as it is now. The book is the first to point out the effects of organizational change, and Microsoft, like most large companies, goes through organizational change frequently. Interesting book... worthwhile read.

The real value in this book is the great work that Fred did to get inside the development team, and then observe. I've worked at R&D in Microsoft for long enough to know that he probably is telling it largely as it happened. I didn't work on this project but I got pretty damned close.

Yep, it sometimes is that chaotic. It's interesting to see in the book how Fred doubts himself, and says things like "maybe I'm going crazy, but it seems like these people just had another useful offsite, but they all think it went great." Fred, you ain't crazy.

The only drawback of this book is that in places Fred tries to read into situations a bit too much. He steps a little too far out of the observer role a few times, which brings the quality down a bit. Also I think he missed a great opportunity to describe the turn-around (well at least they shipped something) at the end. Maybe he got kicked out around then?

The book has lots of direct quotes and first hand accounts of what went on. Want to see the dark side of things going wrong at Microsoft?? Read this book.

So many of the books about software development I have read are about an organized, heroic march from conception to delivery. This book is a much more realistic depiction of the chaos and mess that most people actually live with in real world software development. Moody did a good job of just telling the story and not judging the messiness or trying to clean it up to create the typical late night, pizza boxes and Jolt Cola heroic story. He does a good job of discussing the complex human issues surrounding the project and their importance relative to the actually technical issues. Creating the technology turns out to be relatively simple compared to the challenge of getting a group of people from very diverse backgrounds to function effectively as a team. This challenge is particularly strong in consumer technology products because the range of backgrounds required is so broad. The communications and collaboration skills needed to allow artist and programmers to work together are insightfully revealed in this book

I use this text in a college course I teach and I would give it less than a C. The authors attempt to cover a wide range of material, but they fail to correctly present critical material even when informed of their mistakes. The book does contain links to useful web sites and is current on many of its topics. However, on the subject of diversity and EEO - they need to stick to the facts and not what will sell books. Too many errors for a text this costly.

This is an excellent book if your are interested in learning all about Human Resource Management. It's very easy to read and follow. It's well-organized and well-written, chapter after chapter. The main points are clearly emphasized, with key definitions on each page. There are several things I liked specifically about this book. First, there was an incredible amount of real life examples throughout the book. Specifically, I appreciated the "HR Transition" section at the beginning of each chapter. The sections helped me understand the material effectively by giving specific business world examples on the topic of dicussion. Second, I appreciated the abundance of the figures, diagrams, charts, and images throughout the book. Often books are well-written, but lack in figures and images. This book, however, succeeds easily in providing adequate amount of visuals. Such figures and images make learning the concepts of the book so much easier. Finally, I appreciated the "Chapter Summary" section. It recapped the main points of the chapter, and helped me understand what information was most important in the chapter. There really isn't a whole lot that I disliked about the book. At times, I felt that some less important points were over-emphasized, and that some of the diagrams were confusing. With any respect, this is an excellent book for anyone interested in Human Resource Management.

The textbook is wonderful for individuals interested in learning about human resource management. Each chapter is carefully constructed with the topics hightlighted. The important vocabulary words are located in the outside margins with their appropriate definitions, which is helpful. The book also consists of numerous relevent "figures" or graphs that aid in demonstrating important ideas. I cannot comment on the order of the chapters or the order of the material and how it fits together, simply because I do not know enough about HRM to determine an appropriate order. However, the text was well organized and did a great job providing information about HRM discipline. It gave up-to-date examples and I could always understand the chapters, compared to some texts that are difficult to read and comprehend. In addition, there was an employment guide computer disc located on the book cover. I was not required to use the CD for class purposes, therefore I do not know if it is beneficial or not. But it is an additional tool for learning about human resource management. Overall, the book was excellent and I have no complaints.