About the Book
Though Japan has successfully competed with U.S. companies in the manufacturing and marketing of computer hardware, it has been less successful in developing computer programs. This book contains the first detailed analysis of how Japanese firms have tried to redress this imbalance by applying their skills in engineering and production management to software development. Cusumano focuses on the creation of "software factories" in which large numbers of people are
engaged in developing software in cooperative ways--i.e. individual programs are not developed in isolation but rather utilize portions of other programs already developed whenever possible, and then
yield usable portions for other programs being written. Devoting chapters to working methods at System Developing Corp., Hitachi, Toshiba, NEC, and Fujitsu, and including a comparison of Japanese and U.S. software factories, Cusumano's book will be important reading for all people involved in software and computer technology, as well as those interested in Japanese business and corporate culture.
Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I: The Software Challenge 1: Product-Process Strategy and Japan's Software Industry 2: The Technology: Recurring Problems and Integrated Solutions Part II: The Factory Approach 3: System Development Corporation: A U.S. Factory Experiment 4: Hitachi: Organizing for Process and Quality Control 5: Toshiba: Linking Productivity and Reusability 6: NEC: A Multiproduct, Multiprocess Factory Network 7: Fujitsu: Process Control to Automated Customization 8: Standardization and Cooperative R&D Conclusion 9: Software Development: From Craft to Factory Practice Appendixes A. Survey of Manager Emphases: The Process Spectrum B. Japanese and U.S. Project Performance C. Market Shares and Customer Satisfaction in Japan Notes Index
Review :
"A much-needed dose of reality for every programmer or manager...does a fine job of defining, through five detailed case studies, the domain where the software factory approach works...it's important you read this book...the approach does work and will gain in popularity...may prove vital to the health of your career."--Computer Language
"Since the mid-1980s, various studies have noted the advantages of Japan's more structured approach to software writing. But most were poorly researched and largely ignored. Cusumano claims to have done the most thorough, quantitative analysis of the issue, and his work is turning heads in the U.S."--The Wall Street Journal
"Valuable to practitioners and academics in such fields as engineering, management, and computer science. It should also be fascinating to students of business and economic history."--Journal of Asian Studies
"The fascinating story of the Japanese software factory is documented in Japan's Software Factories....With software at the core of efforts to boost efficiency and productivity, the country with the best software will have a major strategic advantage in the 21st century. Japanese software factories have made important advances in moving forward a most vexing, hard-to-manage technology. Their methods merit close study."--Across The Board
"For anyone involved with the issues of software and competitiveness, this is essential reading."--Software Productivity Consortium Quarterly
"A much-needed dose of reality for every programmer or manager...does a fine job of defining, through five detailed case studies, the domain where the software factory approach works...it's important you read this book...the approach does work and will gain in popularity...may prove vital to the health of your career."--Computer Language
"Since the mid-1980s, various studies have noted the advantages of Japan's more structured approach to software writing. But most were poorly researched and largely ignored. Cusumano claims to have done the most thorough, quantitative analysis of the issue, and his work is turning heads in the U.S."--The Wall Street Journal
"Valuable to practitioners and academics in such fields as engineering, management, and computer science. It should also be fascinating to students of business and economic history."--Journal of Asian Studies
"The fascinating story of the Japanese software factory is documented in Japan's Software Factories....With software at the core of efforts to boost efficiency and productivity, the country with the best software will have a major strategic advantage in the 21st century. Japanese software factories have made important advances in moving forward a most vexing, hard-to-manage technology. Their methods merit close study."--Across The Board
"For anyone involved with the issues of software and competitiveness, this is essential reading."--Software Productivity Consortium Quarterly
"Cusumano has produced a careful, thoroughly researched and cogently argued study. It is likely to remain the last word on the subject for the foreseeable future."--Far Eastern Economic Review
"Cusumano's arguments are compelling."--Informationweek
"Cusumano has written a fine, detailed historical account of how the Japanese manage software development."--Science
"The challenge...now facing U.S. firms is whether they can learn from the Japanese success in managing software development. Especially since...'Japanese producers [will] further refine their software skills and compete even more effectively in a wider range of products and markets, within and outside Japan.'...Cusumano has produced a careful, thoroughly researched and cogently argued study. It is likely to remain the last word on the subject for the forseeable
future.--Far Eastern Economic Review
"Cusumano draws on a rich trove of documentary sources, extensive interviews and even a couple of surveys. His ability to speak Japanese and his contacts in Japan have been put to excellent use....An ambitious and impressive piece of work. It should prove valuable to at least three groups: those interested in the software industry, in Japanese business, and in the relationship between technology and organizational forms."--Sloan Management Review
"Any Western software company who fails to listen, digest and respond to his findings, is asking to go the way of all the other prideful or willfully blind competitors who insisted right up to their demise that the Japanese were unable to make comparable or better cars, TVs, semiconductors, robots and computers."--The Japan Times
"[I]t is well worth going through. Unlike many other studies of Japan's software efforts, this book contains hard data rather than unsupported sweeping generalizations."--Information Systems Management
"A very in-depth study of how Japanese companies organize and manage the process of developing software....[T]he book gives an excellent history of how Japan's firms moved from a craft to factory approach....[F]undamentally a very good study of Japanese factories and the software industry."--Journal of Japanese Studies
"Michael Cusumano's book provides crucial insight to major Japanese contributions in software development methodologies and management practices. As such, it is required reading for software managers around the world."--Robert L. Martin, Vice-President, Software Technology & Systems, Bell Communications Research
"Michael Cusumano, in Japan's Software Factories, separates myth from reality in the quest to find new ways of increasing productivity in the software industry....The book should be read by anyone who wants to understand the changing global marketplace in software."--John B. Munson, Vice-President and General Manager, Space Systems Division, Unisys Corporation
"Michael Cusumano's book on software engineering is outstanding. I believe, with Thucydides, that momentous times need to be recorded, and I believe that these are such times. I am glad that he has done it."--James H. Frame, President, James Frame Enterprises, Inc.
"First rate and very important. While most U.S. observers of Japan tend to eat the sushi and run, he has dug into the reality of the software process both there and here. Cusumano stands alone among U.S. researchers who have studied the Japanese software process. He has the most comprehensive and dependable data."--James H. Morris, Carnegie Mellon University
"The book offers a meticulous detailing of facts and figures on the Japanese auto and auto parts industries and also brings some theory to a topic that has been dominated, until recently, by speculative, anecdotal, and atheoretic comparisons of U.S. and Japanese supplier management practices."--Administrative Science Quarterly
"Cusumano's exploration of the Japanese software world . . . is fascinating. This work not only makes a great contribution to the understanding of the history of the computer industry but provides some key insights into Japanese software management techniques. This study is both a management research work about Japanese software development and an excellent survey of the making of Japan's computer industry, and it should be read by every software manager. It
provides some excellent references to additional material." --Computing Reviews
"Japan's Software Factories does break new ground, and it will be of interest to those concerned with the Japanese company generally and with the organization of software development in particular."--Business History Review
"Devoting entire chapters to Hitachi, Toshiba, NEC, and Fujitsu, and including comparisons with leading U.S. producers, Japan's Software Factories will be essential reading for anyone involved in software and computers, as well as those interested inJapanese management and high-technology competition."--The Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society
