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曾被選為軟件行業最有影響力的十大傑齣人物，而且被選入計算機名人堂，與Charles Babbage、Seymour Cray、James Martin、Grace Hopper、Bill Gates並列。作為國際知名的谘詢師之一，他撰寫或與他人閤著的著作多達25本，其中包括暢銷書《Byte Wars》、《Managing High Intensity Internet Projects》和《Decline and Fall of the American Programmer》。他與朋友閤作開發齣瞭非常流行的Coad/Yourdon 方法；參與創建瞭影響力巨大的Cutter Consortium Business Technology Council。