author : Scott W. Thomas

All these Patterns and AntiPatterns relate to that often-neglected problem area: Software Configuaration Management. That is, knowing what bits you've got and what you've changed, and being able to reproduce, or even revert to, previous configurations. It also includes some associated material on Process and on Testing.

I found this somewhat more useful than the previous AntiPatterns book, because the identified problems and solutions did not strike me as quite so banal and trite. (The problems identified are indeed very real, and the solutions utterly essential -- but the style does rather tend to obscure this fact.) Many of the previous presentation problems remain, however -- waffle, repetition, and especially those irritating cartoonish but unfunny diagrams.