The third edition of Henry Lucas’ undergraduate textbook attempts to cover a lot of ground. [For reviews of the first two editions, see <CR> 18, 1 (Jan. 1977), Rev. 30,782; and <CR> 22, 12 (Dec. 1981), Rev. 38,778.] After 80 pages of introduction, the next 70 pages cover the “overview and technology” of the analysis and design phases. The largest section of the book follows: Approximately 260 pages on implementation, which is described as “following the life cycle.” Concluding the text is a section on Information System (IS) management. The book concludes with a ten-page chapter on The Computer Profession and Its Social Responsibilities, an overly brief attempt for which the author should be congratulated.

A decade ago, when first released, this text seemed to be an unusual attempt to survey a new and growing field. Today, the text is dated, in spite of an attempt to add slim chapters covering “new topics, such as database management and data communications. The new chapters merely skim the surface of the latest developments, and are marred by skimpy references. In fact, the chapter on database management refers most often to a book by Martin [1] published in 1977, hardly justifying the “new” for this edition’s blurb.

In fact, all the chapters have very skimpy sets of references, which in many cases are dated. The least one would expect of the author would be an updating and expansion of the references. Further, while a significant attempt ten years ago, the text now seems to cover too much ground in a “canned,” prepackaged text form, and suffers in comparison to some of its newer competition (i.e., [2,3]). The illustrations are dull and do not use imagination in graphic design or layout. Lucas’ text is a good example of bad pedagogy: It is a dry read that is unlikely to stir excitement in most students. I have little to disagree with in the <CR> review of the second edition: “It lacks zest, elegance, and a coherent point of view.” The text does little to illuminate current controvers- ies in the field. All this should be surprising to those of us who read Communications of the ACM, which has contained stimulating articles by Lucas. Those reports serve the field in a way that this dated and dry textbook cannot come close to achieving. And that is a shame.