Book excerpt: This book explores the challenges of managing software projects, such as changing requirements, uncertain technologies, and evolving user needs, provides strategies for addressing these and other emerging issues, and contains a number of eye-opening perspectives from experts in different fields. Instead of relying solely on traditional project management techniques, the book presents a holistic, adaptive, and flexible framework that takes into account the unique challenges of each particular case of software development. It recognizes that software development is a complex and creative process that involves people with diverse skills and personalities, and provides insights into how to motivate and manage teams, how to communicate effectively, how to automate processes, and how to deal with conflict and uncertainty, from computer engineering and mathematical logic, all the way to advanced geophysics and earthquake engineering. It provides a wealth of practical advice and guidance, as well as insights into the latest schools of thought related to software project management.