Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperative - Softcover

McBreen, Pete; Hendrickson, Mike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201733862 ISBN 13: 9780201733860

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2001

Synopsis

Introducing software craftsmanship, a programmer-centric way to build software, this text explains why software engineering isn't enough and aims to transform the developer's relationship with users and customers.

About this title

From the Back Cover

By recognizing that software development is not a mechanical task, you can create better applications.

Today s software development projects are often based on the traditional software engineering model, which was created to develop large-scale defense projects. Projects that use this antiquated industrial model tend to take longer, promise more, and deliver less.

As the demand for software has exploded, the software engineering establishment has attempted to adapt to the changing times with short training programs that teach the syntax of coding languages. But writing code is no longer the hard part of development; the hard part is figuring out what to write. This kind of know-how demands a skilled craftsman, not someone who knows only how to pass a certification course.

Software Craftsmanship presents an alternative—a craft model that focuses on the people involved in commercial software development. This book illustrates that it is imperative to turn from the technology-for-its-own-sake model to one that is grounded in delivering value to customers. The author, Pete McBreen, presents a method to nurture mastery in the programmer, develop creative collaboration in small developer teams, and enhance communications with the customer. The end result—skilled developers who can create, extend, and enhance robust applications.

This book addresses the following topics, among others:

Understanding customer requirements

Identifying when a project may go off track

Selecting software craftsmen for a particular project

Designing goals for application development

Managing software craftsmen

Software Craftsmanship is written for programmers who want to become exceptional at their craft and for the project manager who wants to hire them.

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About the Author

Pete McBreen is an independent consultant who actually enjoys writing and delivering software. Despite spending a lot of time writing, teaching, and mentoring, he goes out of his way to ensure that he does hands-on coding on a live project every year. Pete specializes in finding creative solutions to the problems that software developers face. After many years of working on formal and informal process improvement initiatives, he took a sideways look at the problem and realized, “Software development is meant to be fun. If it isn’t, the process is wrong.” Pete lives in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada and has no plans to move back to a big city.

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Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0201733862
• ISBN 13: 9780201733860
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208