Cultivating Successful Software Development

It's no longer enough for software development projects to succeed some of the time; you need to deliver excellence, consistently. Cultivating Successful Software Development: A Practitioner's View presents the first systematic approach to making sure that all the software systems you develop meet the highest standards.
It introduces the first coherent model for a mature software development process, the Systems Engineering Environment (SEE). This model comprises two fundamental, interlocked elements: the policies and procedures that define how software development is performed, and the technologies available to get the job done.
Using the SEE framework, you'll walk through every step of the software development process - from planning, through coding, through maintenance. You'll learn how to measure where you are - and where you should be. Then you'll learn how to go beyond quantification, discovering proven ways to make the cultural changes your organization needs to improve software quality. Discover how you can establish and nourish an ongoing, productive dialogue between developers and customers; manage the multiple constituencies, personalities issues, and egos that complicate software development; create plans that reflect the need for change - and take into account real-world risks; and write clearer, more useful contracts and statements of work.
Cultivating Successful Software Development includes more than 200 figures, process diagrams and annotated outlines - all designed to help you understand and implement better processes quickly, and with less resistance to perceived (real or imagined) losses.
This book's techniques will work with any software quality methodology you choose, as well as SEI's capability maturity models and ISO 9000. They will work with any development technology, from CASE to object oriented design to rapid prototyping. And they will work for you whether you're a programmer, manager, or customer. When it comes to delivering better software, if you need to get results, you need Cultivating Successful Software Development.

Stanley G. Siegel is Assistant Vice President with Science Applications International Corporation.