Steve McConnell has written this book on project management for leads and managers. There isn't really much that's software-specific here, but as usual, Steve presents an organized and convincing approach for using a disciplined engineering process for product development, and backs up his recommendations with convincing facts and data. The material is presented effectively by starting with various stakeholder's perspectives - the team member, the customer, and the manager - and introducing the notion of a 'survival checklist' to determine how prepared the project is for the hazards which it likely will encounter. From that 'self-assessment', specific guidance is then offered ('survival skills') in the following areas:

Planning

• Hitting a moving target
• Requirements Development
• Quality Assurance
• Architecture

Phased Development

• Detailed design
• Construction
• System testing
• Release

My favorite part of this book is the 'crib notes' section, in which Steve summarizes a set of "dos and don'ts" from the Software Engineering Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center:

Do's for software success Read more »