Well, the answer is quite a lot. Personally I bought this book for a masters course, having bought it once before for an undergrad course and it scales up very well. Much like the other reviewers I agree it lacks the depth required to make it fully comprehensive (and also the size of War and Peace), but for someone who needs to know this stuff, whether student or otherwise I found it a valuable asset to my learning.

Core understanding to the book is that it isn't going to drop knowledge into your head, this isn't "The idiots guide", it's more a thinking persons book and while giving you the base knowledge will allow you to explore the areas by posing well thought out statements and examples.

Overall, you would buy this book if you want something you'll flick through time and time again, something you can keep on your desk and refer to when you need guidance. This is certainly not a book you'll be using as a door stop (like many others of this type).


Complex but well explained   May 4, 2004
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book was required reading for my course, Ive just had the exam that was based on the most part on this book and its refreshing to be comming out of it thinking that you knew what you were talking about.

It was an invaluable aid to explain the otherwise tortuously explained field of Software methadologies, leaving no stone unturned but at the same time not giving overwhelming levels of detail.
However as a warning, it starts off easy and very quickly builds momentum. HOwever the way the book is structured allows you to use it as a reference, giving excellent examples and decent tutorials that make you think and use the information provided in a constructive way, perfect for actually learning something.
Superb are the first and last few chapters that talk about the issues that permiate the use of methadologies, setting their context and also providing a means to compare and contrast their attributes. The authors always maintain an impartial aspect and when they do voice their opinion you know its an intelligent evaluation of the subject.

Its only drawback is that if you really want to get into the meat of a particular topic then this book is a roadmap at best, it does that very well but for a greater level of detail you really want something more specific, probably from the expert in that particular methadology or field. Thats pretty much the only thing that stops me from giving this a 5 star rating. Otherwise as a course companion this is invaluable!


A useful resource   March 10, 2003
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

A useful resource

I am an Information Systems Student in my final year of study, and I have been searching for some time for such a book. I can say that this book is an excellent resource and does a good job of summarising most of the popular methodologies around today. If you are likely to stay in the Information Systems field for a while then it is a fine resource to have.


Does exactly what it says on the tin   November 25, 2002
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

A superb book for undergraduates to show them all about methodologies, techniques and tools. I recommend this book to all undergrads studying this area. The only critisism is it needs to be supplemented with additional material on diagramming techniques (ERM's etc.) to make it a 5*. Its also a shame that it was not made bigger with the material from the 2nd edition that seems to have disappeared.


The book that spoiled the pleasure of study for me!   November 12, 2002
 3 out of 8 found this review helpful

Reading the introduction to this 3rd!!!! edition was like reading an essay by a 1st year undergraduate. It is lifeless, simplistic, makes general assumptions and qualifies nothing. Well, I though it is just the intro. Further into the text you find that that the authors insist with making assumptions about the reader's knowledge and introduce new terms and aspects of systems analysis where you would least expect it. For example, in chapter 11 the authors introduce the notion of entity models and assume the reader has some knowledge of entity relationships (one to one etc).
Overall, my opinion is that this is not the right textbook if you intend to use it as your sole companion exploring the depths of information analysis. However, it could well prove helpfull combined with lecture notes or other more interesting books; + you've got money to spend.