Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions: A Catologue of Modern Engineering Paradigms

This book is a great foundation for those seeking to understand why waterfall methods don't work for this kinds of problems that today's software projects often set out to solve. The book puts waterfall in context with other development approaches. While many of the examples are "dated" this just makes clearer that agile methods are not entirely new and problems they solve were have a lot of historical justification. In addition to all of this, this book had many excellent references that provide historical context and insights in to things you might want to learn more about. This books is a quick read and is a book every programmer and project manager should read at some point in their career.

The idea that many situations have overlapping problem & solution domains is immensely valuable. Using some of the ideas in other situations, especially with young people, has generated better solutions than I ever imagined possible.Give a copy to your favorite school teacher or city government official -- with the obvious caveat of course.

This is an excellent overview of what software development processes folks are using, and how they are similar to or different from each other. It has pointers to additional information on each method. Now I can easily recognize what method or partial methods a project is using, and better predict what its weak points are going to be. I only wish I had read this book first.Authors, please publish an updated version including more recent methods like extreme programming!

"Wicked Problems" should be CS undergrad required reading, just as "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance" should be read by every mechanical engineer. Wicked problems doesn't wonder off into terminology and methodology, instead it teaches meta-methodology thinking, which will be vastly more useful in practical application. Learning the HOW of a design methodology is less critical in a career path than learning the WHY of all methodologies. That such a useful book is written in simple conversational style with great real world examples is a marvel. You want to build complex systems? You need to read this book.

Want an analysis of software engineering techniques that will make you think? Want a text that is well written, organized, and contains more that than ususal fluff of these types of texts? Then get this book. (Go to the library and check it out!