Very much in the spirit of "Death March", this book is largely about all of the issues in the world in software development that you'd prefer not to deal with, but you ignore at your peril. As the title suggests, this isn't anywhere near an academic-style software engineering text, or even a McConnell-style best practices work. Rather this is more of a "how to deal with politics and make the best out of bad situations" (though not quite death-march bad). I especially liked the parts about how to squeeze in some extra estimation and design time into your process through some creative interactions with management.