This wasn't quite what I expected when I started to read it. More than anything it reads like a self-help for programmers and, as is often the case, the advice given is stuff that you have already realised for yourself. The book is worth reading though, for two reasons.

Firstly, it is useful to have this knowledge accumulated in a single place even if only as a reminder of what you should be doing.

More powerfully, though, is that in discussing the reasoning behind their advice, the authors provide you with the language needed to encourage good practice amongst your colleagues. I have worked in plenty of environments in which development standards are both arbitrary and ignored. Anything that helps improve this situation - and the section on pragmatic projects explicitly addresses this - is hugely beneficial