As an Xoogler, I think this is great news. By the time I left a year ago, there were far too many far-flung buildings in Sunnyvale, with new ones opening all the time (and my group was -- and still is -- slated to move into exile in Sunnyvale).

These were the worst of both worlds -- you still had to deal with a Bay Area cost of living and commute, but you were too far to easily collaborate with other groups, or take advantage of events & resources on the main GooglePlex (TGIF at Charlies, author talks, various events, picking up dogfood hardware, etc.) Not to mention fragmented bus routes.

I like this book as a means to present the ways people describe how software is developed. However, as I read I'm itching to annotate it with notes on "what really happens". I've worked in this business for a few decades now, in various locations and various sizes of companies, including a few that are household names. I have NEVER seen software built on the ground in exactly the ways one sees documented (documented anywhere, not just in this book).

A couple of things I don't see mentioned (apologies if they're in there, I haven't read every word):

1. Process does (and should) vary tremendously depending on factors including the organization size, organization maturity, market maturity, experience level of the people involved, budget, etc. The book seems to suggest that there's a one-process-to-rule-them-all.

2. Often there are significant unknowns about a project : unknown technologies, unknown market needs, unknown requirements. Being able to accommodate the unknowns, which can mean not expending effort trying to know something unknowable, is important. The book I think gives an impression of quite confident smooth progress toward project completion that I personally have never observed.

Also: The value of Rubber Chickens is not mentioned...