I found that this book was packed full of common sense, which is rare in a development management book. Although it has a lot of examples of manufacturing of phsyical goods, I found it great as a software manager. There aren't many spare words in this book, either -- it's terse and well edited, so you get the raw facts and the necessary stories to back them up, but not a lot (or any, really) fluff.

I am putting it on my bookshelf for software engineers, right next to Writing Solid Code and Debugging the Development Process, two classics for software engineers and team leads, respectively.

Absolutely the best book there is on the subject of new product development. Of particular import is the discussion on market and pricing dynamics, which may be new to technical-types. Choosing the right product to develop is critical to avoid "The Innovators Dilemma". The book however needs to add more to the discussion of the importance (and risk) of rapid return of (partial) information to the team during the development cycle, as well as human (team) dynamics. I would therefore recommend "The Team Handbook" as a necessary adjunct.

While the first edition was a bit dry to read in the first four chapters, the second edition is more fun. The value of the content has not been reduced with rev 2.0, on the contrary.

The book is full of sound business theory which is well explained and put into real life context to help the non-MBA to transfer the message to their respective challenges.

Also invaluable are the hints towards common pitfalls. They show that the authors have really applied the theory and are aware of the human factor in change processes.

I read rev 1.0 and 2.0 and will probably buy 3.0 as well.

Keep going!

This book, like its predecessors (The Almanac of American Politics and the Almanac of British Politics) contains information on every federal riding (district) in Canada, including a wealth of political and demographic data. True political junkies will love it as well serious students of Canadian politics. This isn't a book you read -- you flip it open and dive in

I initially read the book as a joke, but it is so true. If you can just say no to people that make you crazy, you will be much happier. I loved the description of the Problem Perennials. Every family has one, and now I know how to handle them. Thank you!

I found that this book had some excellent observations and perspectives on improving the product development process. Ch. 9 on Achieving Overlapping Activities was especially good. However, in Appendix B, the authors show their inexperience in the real world by arguing that World Class Manufacturing and Total Quality Management are impediments to rapid product development. In fact, the concepts practiced within these philosophies will, if properly implemented, work in concert with the other practices discussed in the book and result in faster and better product development. The authors missed this opportunity to fully explore the benefits of a truly integrated product development process. Nonetheless, this book is worth reading and owning.

I oppose property politically and found this book completely unhelpful. Its arguments are, without exception, specious, Proudhon's style is verbose and graceless, and his answer to the question of the book's title a verbal wrangling which reduces the work to an attack a highly specific type of ownership in favour of another. Proudhon is no anarchist and no anarchist should look to this book for inspiration. It is of hitorical interest as a stage in the development of radical philosophy, nothing more.

The idea that Proudhon was against property is one of the greatest myths about him and quite a surprising one as such. His famous statement, "Property is Theft," is later accompanied by, "Property is Liberty." In fact, his whole aim seems to be to show that property on the one hand corrupts, but that this corruption is the only possible basis for liberty - which is the ultimate aim. While Proudhon may be considered a radical, he sure was no leftwinged radical. Read for yourself! Overall he is a bit confused and confusing, his ideas of law and justice rather strange and even disturbing (law is what you cannot avoid admitting, and justice the right balance (supply and demand)). This guy took Smith a bit seriously and didn't care much about Marx's critique of society - although he has some surprisingly great critiques of communism.

Proudhon writes with a flair that captivates the reader and thrusts him into the revolutionary spirit. Fans of Michael Bakunin and Rudolf Rocker will love this work. One of the best reads on early anarchist thought. If you are anti-property you will love this book!

The author expressed his contempt for Peale and company, but he also digressed to other pet peeves. He didn't believe that any parents have a right to ask their adult offspring to return their goodness by taking care of them. He also regarded military commanders in Vietnam as criminals and believed that they should be punished by being made to adopt Vietnamese children who were disfigured in an unattractive way by the war.

I don't take issue with him on either count, but I still say that he was straying from the purported topic of the book.

As others have mentioned below, this book is so full of errors that I can't believe it was ever edited. The problems are often incompletely stated, and the solutions skip steps so they are difficult if not impossible to follow. The text itself appears to have just come unedited from someone's word processor. I was very disappointed. There are much better books out there for the FE exam (like the Lindeberg books.) It's hard to imagine how this one survived to a 15th edition.

I am very disappointed with the sample problems and exercises in this review manual. While the simple solutions are explained in insulting depth, the tougher questions are hardly explained at all - almost as if the editor was gesticulating "let's just forget about this one and move on." In working example questions, only after checking equations in other sources did I finally determine that this book was in error. What clinched it for me was finding that the answer listed for question 71 of the sample exam is (E) - The choices are (A) thru (D)! Do not waste time or money on this review material.

Thorough review, but topics do not always follow in logical progression -- chemistry and thermo chapters could be ordered better. Errors in the review questions are really frustrating. I wasted lots of time trying to find how I lost a decimal place, only to find the author did instead. Area and volume terms get mixed in the fluids section. etc

Here are my thoughts on this book.

Pros: 1. Very reasonably priced as a comprehensive review book and supposedly a money back guarantee.
2. It is current and up to date (as of the April 2003 exam)
3. It has a pretty good variety and quantity of examples and practice problems.

Cons: 1. There are a large number of errors in the example and practice problems. I found at least 50 errors in using this book as a review guide and it is difficult, especially on some of the example problems where I would wonder for half an hour where I went wrong. Some of the errors are obvious, others are difficult or near impossible to spot if you are trying to relearn this material and remember very little. I am sure there are significantly more errors since my review did not cover the book comprehensively and I'm sure I missed a lot as well.
2. The text is not very well written. Some sections go into too much detail while others simply scratch the surface. There were times when I learned more from reading the EIT handbook than from this review book.
3. Lastly, I was a little disappointed when I went to take the practice exam and I found several identical questions to the practice problems provided in the different chapters. The least they could have done was make sure not to reuse questions so that when we'd like to take the practice exam we haven't just seen the questions from review sections.