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Title: After the Gold Rush: Creating a True Profession of Software Engineering (Best Practices) by Steve C McConnell ISBN: 0-7356-0877-6 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.58 (40 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Best Book You Can Read On Software Engineering
Comment: I've been in this business since March 1982. I've read them all. This is the BEST book you can read on the subject. I know, you get these books, try to read the first chapter, they're poorly written, boring, and grow dust on your shelf. THIS BOOK IS NOT LIKE THAT! If you read ANY book on software process and the problems currently faced by software professionals, this is it! And, in response to "A reader from Deep in the trenches of software development", grow up! Hopefully, dinosaurs like you will die out, just the way Ptolemaic theory died when Copernican theory was adopted. It's unfortunate that the code-and-fix mental disease persists, mostly in the minds of "heroes, ball-hogs, and silver-bullet all-nighter 24/7" infected programmers. I, personally, went to the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and have a degree called "Computer Engineering". The software field requires all practitioners to elevate themselves to Engineers. One would never dig the foundation for a huge structure without first having solid requirements, design review, blueprints, and permits. The current software field still goes right to digging. The software engineering portion of our profession is the most important: get those requirements, get buy-in, do a design, get it approved. Then, once you're done with that, you can get a programmer to code it! Those of you out there that still do not believe in software process enabling you to meet your goals better than the retched code-and-fix mentality, I ask that you follow leaders with a process and examine the results, or do the rest of us a favor and leave the field.
Rating: 5
Summary: Most Important Software Book in 10 Years!!
Comment: I don't agree with everything McConnel says in this book, but it is still the most thoughtful book on software engineering/software development I've read since The Mythical Man-Month. Several other reviewers have said this book is just about licensing software engineers. Did they even read the whole book, or just the chapter on licensing? The book is NOT JUST about licensing! Read it!
Sure, there's ONE chapter on licensing, but McConnel's argument is that, to be a real profession, software engineering needs to advance its awareness of the need for better practices, software engineering body of knowledge, university curriculum development, university undergraduate programs, professional code of conduct, and quicker transfer of innovations in software engineering into practice. Licensing is just one piece of the puzzle McConnel discusses. Read it!
This book rises above the detailed practical content of McConnel's other books (which are also classics), and distils a more philosophical message for software professionals. It got me thinking about general issues in my career that I hadn't thought about before. I didn't get any specific technical advice from it, but there were a lot of new ideas. 10 years from now I bet this book will actually be more useful in advancing my career than McConnel's other, more detailed, tomes.
Anyone interested in software should understand what's involved in establishing a "true profession of software engineering." You can disagree with McConnel's view on licensing software engineers, but don't throw out the other 13 chapters, which discuss equally important aspects of making software more like a profession. Read it!
Rating: 4
Summary: Worth a read.
Comment: Thought-provoking book from a guy who's been in the trenches. Maybe I'm biased because for years I've been making the same points within my own small circle. I keep having to do "software archeology" on code that was written by new grads (and old hands who should know better), who are obsessed with writing even the simplest algorithm in a "kewl" way that makes it incomprehensible and unmaintainable, and who keep reinventing the wheel. It makes me wonder if CS departments are teaching anything remotely relevant to industrial software development.
The point of this book is not to tell you specifically how to develop robust software - that topic is covered in some of McConnell's other books. This is a call to action on holding software professionals to higher standards and making them take responsibility for the often substandard product they emit.
McConnell focuses on certification of software engineers. This is certainly worth exploring but I would like to have seen some discussion of other areas for improvement, such as automated testing and more systematic software reuse. Imagine you have to build the Golden Gate bridge by hand-crafting every rivet - that is the state of software engineering today.
Also we should not rush blindly into implementing certification programs. The prospect that a corporation could divert responsibility for its poor business decisions onto a certified software engineer, who simply tried his/her best to implement what the employer asked for, should give us pause. On the other hand, certification should ideally be an engineer's weapon in a death-march situation. If s/he could say "In my professional opinion, what you are asking for, given the time and resources available, is simply not possible", a lot of business fiascos might be avoided. In the end it's a question of educating both management and engineers about the differences between business decisions and technical decisions, and the responsibilities of each party.
I expect this book to play a useful role in getting a much-needed debate going.
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Title: Software Project Survival Guide by Steve C McConnell ISBN: 1572316217 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 14 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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Title: Rapid Development by Steve McConnell ISBN: 1556159005 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 02 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Professional Software Development: Shorter Schedules, Higher Quality Products, More Successful Projects, Enhanced Careers by Steve McConnell ISBN: 0321193679 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 30 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
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Title: Dynamics of Software Development by Jim McCarthy, Denis Gilbert ISBN: 1556158238 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is by Donald C. Gause, Gerald M. Weinberg ISBN: 0932633161 Publisher: Dorset House Pub. Date: March, 1990 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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