Historically, all software projects have involved a certain degree of risk and pressure -- but many of the projects in today's chaotic business environment involve such intense pressure that they are referred to colloquially as "death-march" projects -- i.e., projects whose schedules are so compressed, and/or whose budgets, or resource (people) assignments are so constrained, that the only "obvious" way to succeed is for the entire team to work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no vacations until the project is finished. While the corporate goal of such projects is to overcome impossible odds and achieve miracles, the personal goal of the project manager and team members often shrinks down to mere survival: keeping one's job, maintaining some semblance of a relationship with one's spouse and children, and avoiding a heart attack or ulcer. This new and thoroughly-updated edition of Ed Yourdon's book takes into account many of the changes that have taken place in the more than six years since the publication of the first edition.

Edward Yourdon曾被选为软件行业最有影响力的十大杰出人物，而且被选入计算机名人堂，与Charles Babbage、Seymour Cray、James Martin、Grace Hopper、Bill Gates并列。作为国际知名的咨询师之一，他撰写或与他人合著的著作多达25本，其中包括畅销书《Byte Wars》、《Managing High Intensity Internet Projects》和《Decline and Fall of the American Programmer》。他与朋友合作开发出了非常流行的Coad/Yourdon 方法；参与创建了影响力巨大的Cutter Consortium Business Technology Council。