Under Pressure and On Time

Practical strategies and a proven model for developing great teams and world-class software

Ed Sullivan is the Charles Petzold of software project management. Don't even think about writing software until after you've read this book.
Jeff Prosise

Want to ship great software? Then buy this book! Its a must-read for all serious software professionals.
Jeff Richter

How do you hireand keepthe best software engineers in the business? What real-world practices will motivate a team to produce excellent results? From startups to major corporations, virtually every development organization struggles with these questions as they attempt to ship great software on time. In UNDER PRESSURE AND ON TIME, respected industry veteran Ed Sullivan shares the critical insights and hard-learned lessons gained from his award-winning, 17-year career in software development. He describes a proven model for creating, directing, and growing a successful development team, and he reveals key secrets and essential how-to techniques, about which frustratingly little has been writtenuntil now. This book digs deeper than other project management books to deliver the fire-tested practices and gritty detailsdirect from the trenchesthat will help you assemble a great development team and lead it to ship world-class software. Youll learn all you need to know about the following vital topics.

PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATION: Find out how to recruit, interview, and retain the right people, build the right organizational structure, and create the right corporate culture for a great software-development effort.
TOOLS AND METHODS: Discover how to acquire the best development tools and establish the correct processes for quality assurance and release engineering.
DEFINITION AND PLANNING: See how to manage the critical relationships between your requirements, usability model, technology foundation, and schedule.
PROJECT EXECUTION: Learn how to keep your project on track by finding and fixing problems early, and discover how to run a great beta program to get real-world feedback to augment your testing.
RELEASE AND CLOSURE: Find out how to manage the final stage of the project, make sure its ready to ship, reward and recognize team members for their contributions, and prepare them for the next project.