Gerald Weinberg: More Secrets of Consulting,
2001, Dorset House, ISBN 0-932633-52-8, 200 pages
reviewed by Conrad Weisert, January 2002
This book is a sequel to the author's 1985 original The Secrets of Consulting, ISBN 0-932633-01-3. Although secrets is by no means a synonym for principles or techniques, authors and lecturers keeps promising to share with us the "secrets" of their specialty. Even if their information were secret to begin with, of course, it would hardly still be secret after publication.
The author himself switches to "laws, rules, and principles" in his summary. So, Gerald Weinberg starts out with one strike for his title's silly, annoying, and presumably deliberate misuse of an English word.
Both volumes present Weinberg's highly personal, anecdotal, and unorganized wisdom. These are not books you can easily skip around in to find a particular topic of interest. You should read them straight through, preferably in a single sitting.
Computing professionals know Gerald Weinberg as one of the most successful consultant/educators in our field. Learning what techniques have worked for him will surely help us to do our jobs better. The author also candidly shares some of what has not worked for him, also valuable lessons for us.
Whether we make our living as professional consultants, most of us do consulting at least some of the time in the course of systems analysis, project management, programming, and other information systems activities. That is, we give advice to decision makers. Gerald Weinberg's two secrets books, therefore, are valuable on every computing professional's book shelf.
Recommended
Return to book reviews.
Return to Project Management topics
Return to table of contents.
Last modified January 5, 2002