The book's strength is its blatant acceptance that running projects well involves many issues, such as how people interact, jell as teams and solve problems. No matter how serious the threat, the work still won't get done on time if the time originally allocated for it was not sufficient. When there are multiple parties to a development effort, there are bound to be conflicting interests. Conflict deserves respect. Conflict is not a sign of unprofessional behavior.
Negotiation is hard, mediation is easy.
DeMarco, Tom. 1997.