Everything changes after Release 1.0. The consultants leave; key developers get reassigned to new projects, and the wild and free environment of development gets replaced by change review boards and defect reports. And the public starts beating on the system. Your application needs to be ready to live in that environment--without you.

Out in the real world, your system may have to endure the huge traffic spikes of a Slashdot posting, or a sudden influx of international customers in the middle of the night, or enjoy such popularity that you can't even take it down for maintenance.

Other books on design and architecture only tell you how to meet functional requirements. They help your software pass Quality Assurance. But painful experience has shown that "feature complete" is not even close to "production ready."

With a combination of case studies and practical advice, Release It! will help you avoid the pitfalls that cost companies hundreds of thousand--sometimes millions--of dollars.