Product Description
Even bad code can function. But if code isn’t clean, it can bring a development organization to its knees. Every year, countless hours and significant resources are lost because of poorly written code. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Noted software expert Robert C. Martin presents a revolutionary paradigm with Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Martin has teamed up with his colleagues from Object Mentor to distill their best agile practice of cleaning code “on the fly” into a book that will instill within you the values of a software craftsman and make you a better programmer—but only if you work at it.

What kind of work will you be doing? You’ll be reading code—lots of code. And you will be challenged to think about what’s right about that code, and what’s wrong with it. More importantly, you will be challenged to reassess your professional values and your commitment to your craft.

Clean Code is divided into three parts. The first describes the principles, patterns, and practices of writing clean code. The second part consists of several case studies of increasing complexity. Each case study is an exercise in cleaning up code—of transforming a code base that has some problems into one that is sound and efficient. The third part is the payoff: a single chapter containing a list of heuristics and “smells” gathered while creating the case studies. The result is a knowledge base that describes the way we think when we write, read, and clean code.

Readers will come away from this book understanding

• How to tell the difference between good and bad code
• How to write good code and how to transform bad code into good code
• How to create good names, good functions, good objects, and good classes
• How to format code for maximum readability
• How to implement complete error handling without obscuring code logic
• How to unit test and practice test-driven development

Customer Reviews (76)

a Must read!
This book has a deep impact on how I write or even think about code. I you care about your craft you should really read this!

A must read!Fantastic!
This is a fantastic book about writing clean code and test driven development.Robert dedicated an entire chapter, 14, to refactoring code and included why he refactored the way he did.Thats not all, the way Robert wrote this book is from one coder to another meaning you are his audience; very refreshing.He doesn't hold your hand, but gives you enough information to get you literally on the same page as him with every line.The patterns and "smell tests" included here are worth the cost of this book alone.

This book got me passionate about coding again and about unit testing.If you are a programmer, it doesn't matter what language, (I write python mostly) this book deserves a place on your bookshelf.

Complete Awesomeness
Given the Author is Uncle Bob Martin, I have to admit that I had very high expectations for this book and they were exceeded.Uncle Bob Martin's writing style will keep you engaged and eager to read on.This book will help arm you in tuning your craft as a software developer striving for clean and beautiful code.

If your not sure how good your code is read this!
I have been a Java programmer for a couple of years now and while I know I have a good appreciation for OO concepts and their application I wasn't sure whether my code was actually very good - from the perspective of being efficient, easy to read, extendable, manageable etc. This book, written by seasoned, well-respected programmers gave me confidence in some of things I had already being doing, but mostly helped me improve alot of things and learn't quite a few tips for things I wasn't doing in my code.

Not too thick, very readable - I rarely recommend books to colleagues since I find its a bit subjective, but this is probably the 1 programming book that I have read so far that I always recommend.

You won't be sorry you read it, even if you don't learn anything you will perhaps gain confidence in what you are doing.

A book about how to produce quality code
One of the best books I've read about how to design and produce quality code. Being a professional software developer/craftsman is more than just being able to solve hard technical problems (among other things). It's being able to solve them with elegance and style, and this book helps you develop the knowledge and skills to do just that.

... Read more

Product Description

The essentials of UML 2.0 and how to use it in one concise volume.

Customer Reviews (4)

Good basic and quick book for UML
If you have a general idea of SDLC, this is a perfect book for you. It doesn't bring you into detail but good enough to give you a general idea of all the static and dynamic diagrams. This is also a great book for students who do not want to dig too deep into a concept and not knowing how to apply them.

EQ.

Indepth, but hard to follow
I found this book very hard to read at times, and tedious at other times. If you can stick with it long enough, it starts to make sense, and there as a ton of very good information to be found. It is well written and logically organised, I just wish it were a bit more enjoyable to read.

Very good for STUDENTS
This book touches on all the right subjects but does not go -in my opinion- deep into any. I like the sequence in which the information is organised and presented. It is nice to include case studies, but I am not sure about the completeness of the case studies or if, in fact, these can be implemented from the design provided. It is a novelty to provide discussion topics very often throughout the text, but it would have been better, if not essential, to discuss the issues in the text or direct us to some other resource where the discussions take place. All in all, there are other books that do the job better of introducing UML or discussing advanced issues, but this text is probably the best to be used on an undergraduate course. Its value to software engineers in the industry, though, is questionable.

Informative, question and answer style.
The book is written in an Question/Answer format (i.e., FAQ).Very different from the rest of the UML topics, narrative or reference styles provided in most UML books.Unfortunately, the price seems a little steep,until you consider that there are some valuable bits of information in thisbook that seem to be missing from most UML books.Mostly the"why?" of UML.That makes the book worth every penny.If youare deep into UML and want answers to some of the more obscure issues, thisis a good book to read through. ... Read more

Product Description
Building on seven strong editions, the eighth edition maintains the organization and approach for which Object-Oriented and Classical Software Engineering is known while making significant improvements and additions to content as well as problems and projects. The revisions for the eighth edition make the text easier to use in a one-semester course.

Integrating case studies to show the object oriented approach to software engineering, Object-Oriented and Classical Software Engineering, 8/e presents an excellent introduction to software engineering fundamentals, covering both traditional and object-oriented techniques.

While maintaining a unique organization with Part I covering underlying software engineering theory, and Part II presenting the more practical life cycle, the eighth edition includes significant revision to problems, new content, as well as a new chapter to enable instructors to better-utilize the book in a one-semester course. Complementing this well-balanced approach is the straightforward, student-friendly writing style, through which difficult concepts are presented in a clear, understandable manner. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Object-Oriented and Classical Software Engineering
the book was perfect almost like new and the shipping was quite good as well....

UML and Software Design
This book detailed the different methods of attacking software design and introduces UML diagrams, statecharts, and organization. A wonderful book for those who will be working in the field dealing with the structure and methods that real business' use for software design.

Pick a Methodology, Any Methodology
Stephen R. Schach's "Object-Oriented & Classical Software Engineering" (7ed) is an OK book:it's not bad, but it could certainly be better.

First, some minor quibbles:even though the typography and editing is good, I'm not all that enamored with the color scheme:the orange and black theme is too much like a pumpkin.I know it's trivial, but I thought I'd just pass it along.A little more meaningful is that Schach seems to place too much emphasis on definitions.I don't need multiple reminders of the differences between things like corrective, perfective and adaptive maintenance.It would be better if he just focused on the function and not on the definition.For university use, I suppose this is OK.But, I found it a bit irritating.

The medium-level problem with the book is that there's a lot of temporal shift in the presentation:he would talk about some model or methodology in terms that implied it was the latest and greatest thing.Yet, it had been around for decades. This is probably a function of the overall age of the book:this is the 7th edition.

Most importantly, Schach needs to pick a methodology and stick with it:either talk about the classical methodology or the object-oriented one.Not both. Nowadays, most people probably work with, and are interested in, an object-oriented methodology.Having 1/3 of a book filled with the classical methodology is useless to them.Ditto for those people still working in a classical environment:they won't care about 2/3 of the book.And, for those people who are in a classical environment and want to move to an object-oriented one, there's really nothing in the book that will help them with the transition.If he removed the classical material from the book and published a "how to transition" book instead, that would be great.

Again, it's not a bad book.But, it's not that great.I rate it at an OK 3 stars out of 5.

Good reference material
I had to buy this for my software engineering course at school, and I have found it very useful in explaining software design models and reqs and spec documentation.What I didn't expect were great anecdotes and the chapters on coding practices improved my code-writing skills more than any other source.

I also like the fact that the author strayed away from language-specifics, relying more on the theory and design than the actual impementation.

Great software engineering book, not aimed at programming
I took Professor Schach's course with the last edition of this book two years ago, and it has been very useful for me now that I work at a big corporation. It is a common misconception to think of it as a UML or OOP programming book, because many people confuse software engineering with the areas of software development and programming. They are quite different. This book is best aimed at programmers that want to understand the processes that exist for writing well-planned code in a large organizations. Think of this book as focusing on the overarching _process_ of writing software. This is especially important from the perspective of a project leader or a manager in a software company. It also offers important business perspectives for software development that you should be aware of. If you want to understand why your customers are unhappy with your results, why things are over budget, or why your project keeps missing deadlines, for example. There's alot more in there as well. I really liked it, and Schach knows what he's doing. He owns a software consulting company if I remember correctly. ... Read more

Product Description
For over 20 years, "Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach" has been the best selling guide to software engineering for students and industry professionals alike. The sixth edition continues to lead the way in software engineering. A new Part 4 on Web Engineering presents a complete engineering approach for the analysis, design, and testing of Web Applications, increasingly important for today's students. Additionally, the UML coverage has been enhanced and signficantly increased in this new edition. The pedagogy has also been improved in the new edition to include sidebars. They provide information on relevant softare tools, specific work flow for specific kinds of projects, and additional information on various topics. Additionally, Pressman provides a running case study called "Safe Home" throughout the book, which provides the application of software engineering to an industry project.New additions to the book also include chapters on the Agile Process Models, Requirements Engineering, and Design Engineering. The book has been completely updated and contains hundreds of new references to software tools that address all important topics in the book.The ancillary material for the book includes an expansion of the case study, which illustrates it with UML diagrams. The On-Line Learning Center includes resources for both instructors and students such as checklists, 700 categorized web references, Powerpoints, a test bank, and a software engineering library-containing over 500 software engineering papers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An excellent SE text
This tome of Dr. Pressman's was used as the primary text for several of my graduate-level software engineering classes.As such, it does its job quite well, providing a comprehensive overview of the SE process and its related practices and tools.Well-written (and at times humorous) fictional case studies make the book enjoyable to read.All phases of the software design lifecycle - requirements engineering, analysis modeling, design modeling, unit testing, regression testing, QA, SCM, V&V, etc. - are covered in sufficient depth.Modern SE methodologies, such as Agile, XP, and Scrum, are also introduced.

One strength of this text is its detailed exposition of the usage of formal mathematical methods in the specification and verification of software (the section on "cleanroom" SE is especially thought-stimulating).However - to its discredit - the text gives a little too much credence to highly-questionable metrics-analysis methods such as LOC (lines-of-code) and FP (function point) metrics.As anyone who has spent a considerable portion of his/her career writing complex software can tell you, the LOC of a routine, or the number of inputs it accepts, often has little to do with the difficulty/complexity of the routine in question.For example, a 100-line, four-input routine that performs a complex mathematical calculation will be incomparably more work-intensive than, say, a 500-line, eight-input routine that displays database records on a user-interface window.

Despite this small idiosyncrasy (keep in mind that no textbook is perfect), I wholeheartedly recommend this text to graduate CS/IT students as well as to working professionals who want to implement process-driven paradigms into their workplaces.

Not practical at all.
When your interest fall in software engineering, there are *lots* of books on the subject but only a few of them cover the principles in an almost exhaustive way. One of the main errors that authors do is having the claim that all about software engineering can be covered in a single book. And this book is no exception. When you're reading a textbook, this isn't always bad: one of the main purposes of a textbook is introducing the concepts gradually, without much details and in the clearest way possible. A student doesn't need to know all. He/she just need to understand the fundamentals of the discipline. So, while this book is intended for a professional audience, it is structured like a textbook. The problem here is that it gives probably too much informations for students and too few informations for professionals. It gives a nice introduction on the subject, explaining why the software is a product, its features, its lacks and its myths (very interesting). Problems start with chapter 2: the process. While something is covered about some development models like waterfall, win-win model, RAD, concurrent, etc., it lacks any detail needed to really understand these development models and bring them in practice. One of the things I hate the most about this book are repetitions: the author repeat the same concepts many times during the exposition and this can be irritating. It covers many subjects, like user interface construction, project planning, temporal planning, quality assurance in software development, software architectures, component based engineering, conceptual modeling, etc. Each chapter is a small introduction to these subjects but the book gives small or no details at all on how to use these concepts in practice. You won't find code here. You won't find design patterns, UML diagrams, state charts, refactoring methods. While this is not necessarily bad, it makes clear this book is better used as a textbook and not as a practical (for practitioners) manual to learn software engineering methodologies directly on the field. So, if you're interested in software engineering and you want a solid introduction to it, buy this book. If you're a professional who want a practical exposition of the discipline to apply concepts on real projects, skip this book. I give it 3 stars because explanations are good and the book is well written but the title is a bit misleading: professionals generally needs other kinds of books.

Good Book
Very good book. I am enjoying reading it (not complete yet, it is really very big book). The topics are covered at length. Very good coverage of important concepts with amazing knack of not making the subject boring or dull. Very nice suggestions / references / advices for further study. A A very good read for software engineering professionals. ... Read more

Product Description
This book focuses on metamodelling as a discipline, exploring its foundations, techniques and results. It presents a comprehensive metamodel that covers process, product and quality issues under a common framework.

Issues covered include:

• An explanation of what metamodelling is and why it is necessary in the context of software engineering.
• Basic concepts and principles of traditional metamodelling, and some existing results of this approach.
• Problems associated with traditional approaches to Metamodelling are discussed, alongside an exploration of possible solutions and alternative approaches.
• Advanced topics such as the extension of the object-oriented paradigm for metamodelling purposes or the foundations of powertype-based tool development will be studied.
• Finally, a comprehensive case study is introduced and developed, showing how to use many of the concepts explained in the previous chapters.

This book provides a comprehensive conceptual framework for metamodelling and includes case studies and exercises which will demonstrate practical uses of metamodelling. For lecturers and educators, the book provides a layered repository of contents, starting from the basics of metamodelling in the first chapters, through specific issues such as trans-layer control or non-strict approaches, up to advanced topics such as universal powertyping or extensions to the object-oriented paradigm. The book also serves as an in-depth reference guide to features and technologies to consider when developing in-house software development methods or customising and adopting off-the-shelf ones. Software tool developers and vendors can benefit from the book by finding in it a comprehensive guide to the implementation of frameworks and toolsets for computer-aided software modelling and development. ... Read more

Product Description

The art, craft, discipline, logic, practice and science of developing large scale software products is in increasing need of a trustworthy, believable and professional base. This book is one of a series of three volumes, devoted to fill this need. This series of strongly related text books combine informal, engineeringly sound approaches with the rigour of formal, mathematics based approaches.

Emphasis in the coverage of domain and requirements engineering is on ... Read more

Product Description
Teaches C++ by applying the best software engineering practices and methodologies to programming in C++. Shows the user how to build code that is more robust, easier to maintain and modify, and more valuable. Softcover. DLC: C++ (Computer programming language).Amazon.com Review
Aimed at the Visual C++ newcomer, Core C++: A Software Engineering Approach provides a rich and sometimes densely packed tour of the language, with plenty of advice on the best ways to use this powerful programming language effectively. It's full to the brim with useful advice for creating and using classes effectively, and gaining an expert's understanding of the language.

The writing style and presentation of C++ in this book are outstanding. The explanations of key C++ concepts, from basic language features to class design to advanced C++ whistles and bells, are by turns colloquial, garrulous, and almost always enjoyable and understandable. While it's not uncommon for today's computer book to weigh in at over 1,000 pages, the raw word count here is quite exceptional. You're challenged repeatedly to think for yourself, and the intricacies of C++ are exposed thoroughly, from language features that are indispensable to what to avoid in your code.

You'll get pretty much everything that you need to learn C++ effectively, starting with basic keywords, data types, flow-control statements, and arrays. The guide to understanding object-oriented concepts, like coupling and cohesion, will help you design better classes. Even experienced programmers will appreciate the thorough coverage of memory-management techniques in C++ (including the five kinds of scopes for variables).

An important middle section provides a blueprint for the methods and functions that most C++ code should offer, including such methods as default and copy constructors, destructors, and overloaded assignment operators. (By following this idiom, you'll be able to write reusable C++ classes.) The book also illustrates class design with basic UML notation, excels at presenting the details of how to overload C++ operators to provide easier syntax for custom C++ classes, and provides excellent explanations of the pros and cons of composition and inheritance for getting classes to work together. A look at more advanced C++ features, like templates and exception handling, wraps things up. Along the way, you get a taste of UML notation and a thorough introduction to some of the best practices for writing C++ code effectively.

Core C++ is certainly no quick read, and, if you're in a rush to learn quickly, there are plenty of more concise treatments that are available. But, if you're ambitious and want to master the intricacies of C++ class design with some of its underlying design principles, this is an original and thorough package that offers unique strengths. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

The software crisis Software project-management techniques Design-quality principles Introduction to the C++ language A minimum C++ application explained C++ data types Operators and flow control Arrays C/C++ structures Unions Enumerations and bit fields Memory-management techniques (including stack and heap allocation, dynamic allocation, avoiding memory leaks) File I/O with and without stream classes Basic C++ class design Parameter passing in C++ (options and best practices) Creating custom programmer-defined data types

Cohesion Coupling Data encapsulation and information hiding Guidelines for C++ class design: constructors (default, conversion, and copy constructors), overloading the assignment operator, destructors In-depth guide to overloading C++ operators Introduction to UML class diagrams Aggregation and inheritance C++ class syntax Inheritance vs. composition Virtual methods and late binding Multiple inheritance Advanced operator overloading techniques C++ templates and exceptions Standard C++ type cast operators Review of material covered

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Customer Reviews (27)

Very thorough
Recommended for anyone wanting to learn C++ and having experience programming in at least one other OO programming language.
The book is very thorough, sometimes excessively so. Yet it does a tremendous job explaining the inner workings of the language. I thought the memory management section was phenomenal. If it was up to me however, I would make a lot of chapters a bit shorter by eliminating less important features. Instead I would let the reader find out about those features via exercises.

Classic and Thorough
I picked this book up when it was first published in 2000, and thought it was one of the most thorough books on the subject of C++, to explain all the intricacies, the next best thing to having a professor standing next to you and explaining. Eight years later, I still think this is one of the best books. If you take the time to read it, you will walk away with deeper knowledge of C++.

Outstanding!
I can't praise this book enough for its style and clarity. Dr. Shtern has an unusual talent for speaking in terms that a beginning C++ user can understand and an experienced C++ user can appreciate. Far more than a "how to" book, it's also a "why to," a "when to," and a "why this is important (or not)" book. I won't try to say it all here; read the Amazon.com editorial review--it's right on the money. "Core C++" has been a real pleasure to read. Highly recommended!

C++ In-Depth
The author does an excellent job in explaing the details of how C++ works and its syntax. This book was the definite kickstart in me programming in C++. The only thing you must know is how to use a compiler. The author doesn't talk about compiling or setting up a compiler.

I highly recommend this book if what your looking for is understanding C++ at the smallest level.

Goran Ekstrom
As almost all of the reviewers state, very good book. It's not just an abstract syntax and "Fruit->Berry->Blueberry inheritance" paper like so many other C++ books out there. This book deals with the real world of software problem solving, something I as an active professional, not student, was searching desperately for when I found this book. ... Read more

Product Description

Although many software books highlight open problems in secure software development, few provide easily actionable, ground-level solutions. Breaking the mold, Secure and Resilient Software Development teaches you how to apply best practices and standards for consistent and secure software development. It details specific quality software development strategies and practices that stress resilience requirements with precise, actionable, and ground-level inputs.

Providing comprehensive coverage, the book illustrates all phases of the secure software development life cycle. It shows developers how to master non-functional requirements including reliability, security, and resilience. The authors provide expert-level guidance through all phases of the process and supply many best practices, principles, testing practices, and design methodologies.

For updates to this book and ongoing activities of interest to the secure and resilient software community, please visit: www.srsdlc.com

"Secure and Resilient Software Development provides a strong foundation for anyone getting started in application security. Most application security books fall into two categories: business-oriented and vague or ridiculously super technical. Mark and Laksh draw on their extensive experience to bridge this gap effectively. The book consistently links important technical concepts back to the business reasons for application security with interesting stories about real companies dealing with application security issues."

—Jeff Williams, Chair, The OWASP Foundation

Customer Reviews (2)

Secure Development and enterprise assurance programs
In the interests of full disclosure, I should start by noting that I am slightly biased.Both of the two authors, Mark Merkow and Laksh Raghavan, work on my team.

They are a perhaps an ideal pair of book authors because they have such complementary viewpoints and skills.I have known Mark for - good grief! - about twenty years.There is a great deal of solid theory that underpins information security, and Mark is one of few practitioners who both understand this theory, as well as know how to put it into practice.This is surprisingly rare.Laksh, on the other hand, is one of the best application security guys you'll ever meet.He knows the theory and the practice of both how to defend and attack applications.(They're both really nice people too, although that might be less relevant to their writing skills.)

Individually, they're both very strong.In combination, they and - therefore this book - are very, very good.The book builds from a firm theoretical foundation, and works up into a detailed explanation of the various ways in which applications and systems can be attacked, and how these attacks can be defeated by careful system design, coding and testing.It takes that and then moves into the ways in which enterprises can build full-blown programs to secure their applications, and finally into emerging industry standards such as BSIMM & OWASP.

I have a bunch of security books on my bookshelf, and the majority of the ones on secure / resilient software practices are not great.This, on the other hand is one of those rare books that is both interesting and informative on the first read, and very helpful as a reference work on subsequent reads.Strongly recommended.

Legal disclaimer - Please note that nothing in the above should be construed as anything other than the personal / professional opinion of this reviewer, and certainly not as the formal view of our employer.

The Quest for Secure and Resilient Software
"Secure and Resilient Software Development" by Mark Merkow and Laksh Raghavan is a really good book. It addresses a key security area that is generally given short shrift, even though purportedly more than 70 percent of breaches result from attacks on the application layer. The book is one of only a handful of texts about information security written by practitioners for practitioners.Even fewer practitioner books address software security ... and most of those have been written or co-authored by Mark Merkow! The majority of publications in the field of software security are written by academics or vendors' employees, both of whom have their own agenda. The former group is dominated by publishing or perishing; whereas the latter generally promote particular products or methodologies supplied by their employers. The true value of Mark and Laksh's book is that it is both impartial and extremely informative.

The book is comprehensive. It covers areas with which most infosec professionals and software developers are not likely to be familiar. For example, the authors recount the history of application security testing as far back as the Orange Book and Common Criteria (CC). Incidentally, Mark co-authored an excellent book on the CC, namely "Computer Security Assurance Using the Common Criteria" (Thomson, 2005). In the current book, issues with the CC approach are raised ... and by someone who should know!

Among the many useful chapters, I personally derived the most from Chapters 8 and 9, which are about testing custom applications and commercial-off-the-shelf software respectively. I also was interested in reading Chapter 11 on metrics and maturity models. I found the coverage of these topics to be extensive, although I have my own opinion regarding the lack of meaningful metrics for security in general and application security in particular.

I suspect, however, that many readers will be more interested in the design and coding phases of the SDLC (software development life cycle), rather than the testing phase. And these readers will not be disappointed. It was encouraging to see that resiliency is given top billing, as it is often neglected by developers, although software engineers might well see the importance of building resilient systems.

Having given the reader a taste of what he or she needs to know in order to produce or acquire secure and resilient software, the authors point the reader to sources of further education, including the various certifications that can be earned.

The book is rounded out with a very helpful glossary of terms, and a couple of appendices. The first covers the top 25 most dangerous programming errors (according to CWE/SANS), and the second describes OWASP's Enterprise Security API project.

All in all this is a book packed with valuable information for those designing, developing or supporting secure and resilient software. It is full of useful and actionable suggestions. And it fills a gap that really needed filling. It gives the reader a sound grounding and good understanding of the issues relating to the development of secure and resilient software and points the reader in the right direction for building further upon the base established by the book.

[This review was excerpted from a column published on [...] on July 19, 2010]
... Read more

Product Description

Managing Humans is a selection of the best essays from Michael Lopps web site, Rands In Repose.Drawing on Lopp's management experiences at Apple, Netscape, Symantec, and Borland, this book is full of stories based on companies in the Silicon Valley where people have been known to yell at each other. It is a place full of dysfunctional bright people who are in an incredible hurry to find the next big thing so they can strike it rich and then do it all over again. Among these people are managers, a strange breed of people who through a mystical organizational ritual have been given power over your future and your bank account. Whether you're an aspiring manager, a current manager, or just wondering what the heck a manager does all day, there is a story in this book that will speak to you.You will learn:

• What to do when people start yelling at each other

• How to perform a diving save when the best engineer insists on resigning

• How to say "No" to the person who signs your paycheck

Among fans of Michael Lopp is the incomparable Joel Spolsky, cofounder and CEO of Fog Creek Software:

"What you're holding in your hands in by far the most brilliant book about managing software teams you're ever going to find".

This book is designed for managers and would-be managers staring at the role of a manager wondering why they would ever leave the safe world of bits and bites for the messy world of managing humans.The book covers handling conflict, managing wildly differing personality types, infusing innovation into insane product schedules, and figuring out how to build a lasting and useful engineering culture.

Customer Reviews (41)

Content OK, book unreadable
The pages in Packt book look AWFUL -- it appears to have been printed from a JPEG, with artifacts everywhere.Really a shame.

Pretty easy read, and something to learn from it too.
This book is not your atypical text book style or instructional book.It really reads much more like a blog or fictional short story.I found it to be light, easy to read and laugh-out-loud funny at times.It also had a Dilbert-esq feel at times.I caught myself nodding in agreement and wondering when he had been employed at my office.The catch is, hidden in all the funny stories and apparent wanderings, are actually a lot of valuable tidbits of information.If you are a beginning tester or manager this probably isn't going to help you much, except to entertain you (or scare you as you contemplate your new career).For those of us with more than a few years under our belts, they are in there if you pay attention.Personally, I have to say it was nice to be learning something without it being done in a lecture or preachy style for a change.It was a breath of fresh air from the usual textbooks available.

Entertaining, but pointless
This book is somewhat entertaining to read and it has some good points for people looking to better understand management, however the style is too informal (not in a good way I think) and it reads more like someone's blog rather than a book. The author may be a good storyteller and a manager (or at least that's what he's trying to convey), but he isn't very good teacher. This work's sub-title is "Biting and Humorous Tales...", and that's what it is - not much more. There are lots of observations from the field, but overall result lacks coherence and at the end, you don't really learn anything new.
If you're looking for solid advice on the subject, look elsewhere.

Nice book cover, but nothing on the subject of managing people
At the very beginning of the first chapter, the author states, that the wonder of writing for the web is, that there is no real time schedule and apart from the fact that he always wanted to write a book, he really has no subject, that he want to mediate to the potential reader. That there are some recurring themes in the articles but no leading theme. Who the hell is this "manager of people" who is proud of having no schedule and theme?

After reading first five chapters of this book, it became clear, the author has next to nothing to say about the subject of managing people.

It's just random rants (that's the name of author's blog, from where most of the chapters in the book come), missing any structure and editing.

If you are totally new and trying to comprehend the role of your boss, this book is somewhat OK.
But if you are already in some kind of managing position, this book won't give you any clue on how to advance the relations with your subordinates.

After reading through the rest of the book in futile hope to discover some gems, which would be worth my effort, I can safely conclude that there are none.

If this is all the author has to say after being manager for 15 years, I'm afraid, he'd have done himself and the people he managed a favor, had he continued to pursue career in coding.

And yes, as some other reviews have noted, the tales are neither gripping nor funny.

A different kind of management book
Managing Humans is Michael Lopp's entree into blog-turned-book style that seems to be increasingly popular these days.And while the content from [...] has been edited and tweaked, a few reviewers have mentioned that it needs a bit more polish; I would agree.

While it has an amazing amount of insight into relevant issues delivered with surprising certainty, there isn't research, a philosophical premise, or numbers to back it up, only anecdotes that, while believable, are admittedly created for purpose.Lopp doesn't equivocate, and he doesn't present his views within the context of a greater argument or philosophy.As such, the book reads like a monologue about software companies from a drunk friend who you don't always see eye-to-eye with.

In this regard, the book is simultaneously annoying and stimulating.If you can stomach a point of view not frequently written in, and a blatantly unapologetic tone, it's worth the read.There are nuggets of wisdom to be found, but they are buried so deeply within the anecdotes, I found myself forgetting them after a few chapters.

I really wanted to like this book more, but it lacked a coherence that I may have mistakenly been expecting.Too bad there aren't half star ratings - 3 is a little short, but will have to do. ... Read more

Product Description

Effective decisions are crucial to the success of any software project, but to make better decisions you need a better decision-making process. In Evaluating Project Decisions, leading project management experts introduce an innovative decision model that helps you tailor your decision-making process to systematically evaluate all of your decisions and avoid the bad choices that lead to project failure.

Using a real-world, case study approach, the authors show how to evaluate software project problems and situations more effectively, thoughtfully assess your alternatives, and improve the decisions you make. Drawing on their own extensive research and experience, the authors bridge software engineering theory and practice, offering guidance that is both well-grounded and actionable. They present dozens of detailed examples from both successful and unsuccessful projects, illustrating what to do and what not to do.

Evaluating Project Decisions will help you to analyze your options and ultimately make better decisions at every stage in your project, including:

• Requirements–Elicitation, description, verification, validation, negotiation, contracting, and management over the software life cycle
• Estimates–Conceptual solution design, decomposition, resource and overhead allocation, estimate construction, and change management
• Planning–Defining objectives, policies, and scope; planning tasks, milestones, schedules, budgets, staff and other resources; and managing projects against plans
• Product–Proper product definition, development process management, QA, configuration management, delivery, installation, training, and field service
• Process–Defining, selecting, understanding, teaching, and measuring processes; evaluating process performance; and process improvement or optimization

In addition, you will see how to evaluate decisions related to risk, people, stakeholder expectations, and global development. Simply put, you’ll use what you learn here on every project, in any industry, whatever your goals, and for projects of any duration, size, or type.

Customer Reviews (1)

A powerful survey of software project managers introducing an innovative design model
Carl L. Hoover, Mel Rosso-Llopart and Gil Taran's EVALUATING PROJECT DECISIONS is a powerful survey of software project managers introducing an innovative design model to help evaluate decisions. From project stages and objectives to proper product definition and business decision impacts on stakeholders and global development, this is a key for both software and business libraries alike.
... Read more

Product Description

This application-oriented bookshows how to apply proven software metrics andmethods to efficiently manage software developmentand maintenance--to help boost productivity,efficiency, and quality of software projects atevery stage of the process. Detailing practical methods throughout, the bookcovers tips to best measure and present progress,a useful model for understanding organizationlimitations, possible problems in processimprovement illustrated by examples, evidence ofwhat works and what doesn't work, and more. An ideal reference for projectmanagers and professionals responsible for processimprovement.n

Customer Reviews (9)

Classic study.Somewhat dated methods for web development, but good foundation.
This book is a classic on one of the earliest efforts to collect software metrics. It's getting a bit dated for today's webdev efforts, but still worth a read to understand how we got where we are today.

A Practioner's Handbook
I bought this book about 5 years ago after getting certified as a project manager.This book give me a holistic view of how to intepret data collected from tracking the entire software lifecycle and manage and integrate best practices into a software business.

The author's vast experience in HP helps to provide good assurance that his concepts used were tried and robustly tested. Therefore, software failures, internal flags and customer feedbacks can immediately give you a fairly visible prognosis to the robustness of a release and flashes early warning signs of how you should manage that product to reduce damage to your business, etc..Practical for technical managers having to manage the business operations.

Practical and excellent reference
Although this book is over 10 years old, it could have been written this year.The concepts are still relevant.
The author concludes that there are 2 primary reasons to undertake a metrics program for software development -- 1) tracking progress and 2) identifying improvements.The book is divided into 2 parts, with the first part discussing project management metrics and the second part metrics to improve your software development processes.I particularly liked the goal/question/metric approach to validate the metrics you are collecting. The text is loaded with examples from the author's experience at HP.There are several charts and diagrams.This is not an academic read, but as the title says -- practical.The author also covers people issues, such as selling your metrics program to management and staff.It is a quick read and a very useful reference book.

Seamless integration of development and project activities
This is Grady's first book and it sets the tone for his later two books, Successful Software Process Improvement and Software Metrics: Establishing a Company-wide Program.What makes this book so important is that it is one of the first to integrate software metrics with project management metrics.

What I particularly like about this book includes:

(1) Complete view of metrics that matter, and the chronicle of how these metrics evolved in a large company (Hewlett-Packard).
(2) Recognition that any software metrics initiative extends beyond the project that delivers the software - Grady examines post-production metrics and ties them back to not only the development life cycle, but the product life cycle as well. Ten years after this book was published there are still large organizations that are struggling with doing this, yet Grady's book provides a clear roadmap to achieving this elusive goal.
(3) Continuous improvement is the central theme in this book.Grady does not stop with collecting and analyzing metrics, but how to effectively employ them to spot improvement opportunities and develop a strategy to effect those improvements.

The book is written as both a story of how a successful metrics program evolved, complete with anecdotes that will prove helpful, and as a collection of data that illustrates what is and is not important to a comprehensive metrics program.

Among all of Grady's books I like this one the best; however, I recommend that his other two also be carefully read if software process improvement is your goal.He has much to say and backs it up with data and a chronicle of his experiences from real projects.

Easy read, valuable desk reference and metrics resource
I was introduced to Mr. Grady's work when I borrowed a copy of Software Metrics: Establishing a Company-Wide Program.Where that book interwove a storyline into metrics and how they support mature process improvement, this book is more like a desk reference.Mr. Grady has divided this book into two parts:tactical metrics, which are project-oriented, and strategic metrics which address process improvement.

The first part starts with a collection of practical rules of thumb for software managers. This collection of heuristics covers every phase of the development life cycle and are backed up with data gathered during 125 software projects at Hewlett-Packard.An example of one of these rules of thumb is that you will find 1 defect after software has been released into production for every 10 defects caught during testing. This, of course, is purely empirical, but is an interesting rule that I mentally filed away. Some highlights of the first part are: a good introduction to the goal-question-metric approach to determining what to measure based on your objectives, and a focus on project goals of maximizing customer satisfaction while minimizing project schedule and costs, and product defects.This is followed by chapters that address each of these goals.One of the best chapters in the first part of this book is work analysis. While I am more focused on the service delivery side of metrics (after the project has produced something that has been released into production), some of the metrics were very valuable to me - especially the ones that revolved around testing and QA.

Part 2 is squarely in my domain - production and application support, and service delivery. The best chapter, Dissecting Software Failures, was one of the most insightful descriptions of the defect life cycle I have ever read. It fully addresses defect data collection and analysis, and how to use this data to effect process and product improvement.Even better is the chapter on investing in process improvement.Here Mr. Grady gives a workable approach to using the defect data to developing a business case for process improvement. He guides you through developing a plan, selecting from among an array of solutions, and case studies.

This book is a quick read. It's main value lies in the many tables and facts provided on nearly every page.I use it as a desk reference, especially the appendices that summarize defect origins, types and modes, and metrics definitions.It spans both project and production metrics, and is as valuable to project managers as it is to application support professionals. ... Read more

Product Description
Comprehensive and up-to-date, it covers the most vital part of software development, independent verification and validation. Presents a variety of methods that will ensure better quality, performance, cost and reliability of technical products and systems. Features numerous hints, tips and instructions for better interaction between verification and validation personnel, development engineers and managers. Includes 8 case histories ranging from major engineering systems through information systems. Many of the principles involved also apply to computer hardware as well as the fields of science and engineering. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

IV & V is the best
Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V): A Life Cycle Engineering Process for Quality Software is the most advantageous weapon a software developer or software-related company can be armed with to minimize risk.Lewis' book takes a building block approach of what software development is and then breaks each software development life cycle (SDLC) phase down in detail.It discussions all functions of the SDLC, configuration management, quality assurance, and the differences betweeen them and IV&V... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Probably the most important software title I own
We used this book in the class that introduced me to software engineering.I shared it with co-workers at my job, and we literally rebuilt the way the company handled software from the ground up.Primarily in FORTRAN, noless.It covers pretty much all phases of the project lifecycle, fromrequirements to delivery.It's not a course by itself, but the principlesare crucial.Although a few things are now out of date (such as thewaterfall model) it's still an important book.Yourdon doesn't take sides,either - he includes the papers both for and against the GOTO statement. Hardly politically correct, and therefore the icing on the cake.If youcan possibly get your hands on this book, do so.

Where Software Engineering (and more) began
Really, Ed Yourdon titled his book perfectly: this volume brings togethermany of the most vital articles from the early days of what wasn't yetcalled software engineering, making a book that no serious programmershould be without.Yourdon's introductory remarks that set each article inits context are thoughtful and brief.They do their job and then get outof the way of what is, of course, the soul of the book: the articles.Notonly Dijkstra's notorious _Go To Statement Considered Harmful_, but alsohis _Programming Considered as a Human Activity_, arguably the opening shotof the structured programming movement.And so much more: Parnas ondecomposing systems into modules, as relevant today as when it was written;the early paper by Stevens, Myers, and Constantine on structured design;papers by Baker, Mills, Kernighan & Plauger; and Knuth's wonderful,provocatively titled _Structured Programming with go to statements_.Ifyou don't recognize any of these names you've missed out on the very basisof modern software practice; if you haven't read all of the articles inthis volume, you could stand to improve your familiarity with thatfoundation.If you haven't read any of these in years - why, isn't it timeto refresh your acquaintance?

GET THIS BOOK BACK IN PRINT!Not leastbecasue I want to replace my copy that's literally falling apart. ... Read more

Product Description

Software development is a complex problem-solving activity with a high level of uncertainty. There are many technical challenges concerning scheduling, cost estimation, reliability, performance, etc, which are further aggravated by weaknesses such as changing requirements, team dynamics, and high staff turnover. Thus the management of knowledge and experience is a key means of systematic software development and process improvement. "Managing Software Engineering Knowledge" illustrates several theoretical examples of this vision and solutions applied to industrial practice. It is structured in four parts addressing the motives for knowledge management, the concepts and models used in knowledge management for software engineering, their application to software engineering, and practical guidelines for managing software engineering knowledge.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art and best practice in knowledge management applied to software engineering. While researchers and graduate students will benefit from the interdisciplinary approach leading to basic frameworks and methodologies, professional software developers and project managers will also profit from industrial experience reports and practical guidelines.

Product Description
The modern field of software metrics emerged from the computer modeling and "statistical thinking" services of the 1980s. As the field evolved, metrics programs were integrated with project management, and metrics grew to be a major tool in the managerial decision-making process of software companies. Now practitioners in the software industry have a reference that validates software metrics as a crucial tool for efficient and successful project management and execution.Software Metrics: A Guide to Planning, Analysis, and Application simplifies software measurement and explains its value as a pragmatic tool for management. Ideas and techniques presented in this book are derived from best practices. The ideas are field-proven, down to earth, and straightforward, making this volume an invaluable resource for those striving for process improvement. This overview helps readers enrich their knowledge of measurements and analysis, best practices, and how ordinary analysis techniques can be applied to achieve extraordinary results. Easy-to-understand tools and methods are applied to demonstrate how metrics create models that are indispensable to decision-making in the software industry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Solid introductory text
This is among the best introductory texts on software metrics I've read in a long time. The author carefully and meticulously leads you through the basics of measurement and metrics, including some interesting views about how measurement is an integrated activity that has three distinct phases - cognitive, semantic, and quantitative.

Key software metrics are covered, divided into simple and complex classes, and traced to quality standards and a common metrics vocabulary.This part of the book is solid and especially suited to someone who is exploring software metrics and may have been put off by the dense, overly technical approach in other books.

Like the preceding material, the chapters on designing a metrics system and data visualization are basic, but straightforward.I especially like the three chapters on data analysis that classify metrics into frequency, time and relationship domains. This is one of the clearest approaches to cutting through the complex morass of data analysis, and will put metrics into perspective instead of overwhelming.The next chapters, covering process and estimation models were adequate in my opinion.They covered the essentials.However, the chapter on defect metrics was outstanding.I liked the complete and concise coverage of this topic.

The remainder of the book ramped down and seemed to lack the detail or clarity that characterizes the preceding parts of the book.However, this material was more operational and not (in my opinion) as important as communicating the fundamentals, collection and analyses, or metrics classification that were so exceptionally well covered in this book.I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to quickly learn the basics of software metrics.

Measuring Software
This book is written poorly and it does not provide any information about measuring software. It simply rehashes theoretical statistics taught in 101 and that too in a difficult and hard to understand way. ... Read more

Product Description
Showing Xbox owners how to increase the value and utility of their system, Hacking the Xbox features step-by-step tutorials on hardware modification that teach basic hacking techniques as well as essential reverse engineering skills. Full discussions of the Xbox security mechanisms and other advanced hacking topics are here, along with practical pointers from hacking gear resources to soldering techniques. The book also covers the social and political implications of hacking and profiles the humans behind the hacks in candid interviews.Amazon.com Review
This--this being the attitude encapsulated in Andrew "bunnie" Huang's Hacking the Xbox--is why a lot of people got into the computer industry in the first place. These people liked taking things apart and figuring out how they worked, then making them serve purposes they weren't originally designed for and sharing the new discoveries with others of like mind. Sure, Huang's book is about how to how to turn Microsoft's game console into a high-performance, general-purpose personal computer with a small price tag, and it contains lots of details about the how the heavily advertised gizmo is put together. But you can get the technical material on the Web. What's valuable about Huang's work is that he communicates the pure joy of taking the Xbox apart, figuring out how it works--despite its many designed-in anti-hacking features--and making it do new things. This book reads like the journal of a seventeenth-century voyage of discovery.

There's a wealth of information in these pages about how to disassemble and reverse-engineer electronics, and Huang is careful to show you what tools you need, and how to use them (don't worry if you don't know how to use a soldering iron--that's covered here). There also are step-by-step guides (complete with photos) to a couple of projects, and interviews with key figures in the Xbox-hacking community. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to enjoy a Microsoft Xbox game console without the mindless tedium of playing video games. This book shows you how to open an Xbox, make modifications to it (from a cosmetic LED color change, to putting in a new power supply, to adding a USB connector), and make the changes needed to get Linux running on it. In the process, readers get an education in reverse engineering electronic circuits, as well as in basic electronic techniques (soldering, crimping, etc) and in the intellectual property law that governs hacker activity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

God!! it is being cited 46 times...
Did you believe that this book is cited 46(34+12) times by academic? Just trace the Google scholar! Oh my God.

Bunnie inspires a budding computer engineer
I bought this book for my then teenage son who wanted his XBox to do more than what Mr. Gates wanted it to do. Phil astounded me with the skills he developed in soldering, mechanics, and searching for the resources he needed.

Bunnie goes into great detail to explain not just how to do the job physically, but weaves a tale of how Microsoft has attempted to secure the XBox and leads the reader along a road of computer hardware discovery.

Well it worked. Phil not only turned his XBox into a fully-functional linux box but he became inspired and this year graduated from college as a computer engineer.

Thanks, Bunnie.

Fascinating read, short on actual projects
I purchased this book because I would like to learn about reverse engineering without getting a degree.Tinkering with an Xbox, which can be purchased for less than $50, sounds like a great idea.The book, sadly, is short on actual projects to learn from.The vast majority is about hacking, reverse engineering, and legal issues related to these activities.The book is well written and the arguments for the freedom to reverse engineer and invent in your own garage beautifully argued.It made for a really great read but left me wanting regarding the original reason I purchased it.

Peerless
This is an absolute MUST BUY for everyone who likes to tinker with electronic devices - it's like porn for hardware hackers :)

Bunnie's description of how he and the XBox hacking community came to circumvent the XBox's security infrastructure is a wonderful tale in itself. The fact that Bunnie describes the methodical approach taken, with its several false-starts and failures to its eventual success is a great lesson for hackers everywhere - a systematic approach (plus a smidgen of luck and more than a little inspiration) is generally the only way to overcome significant odds.

But this book offers far more than just the story of how the XBox was hacked and the ... ahem ... wonders of the DMCA - it is an invaluable guide to anyone interested in creating their own devices. The sections on soldering techniques, board manufacturing, etc., equipment suggestions, etc., is a boon to anyone who has an urge to create something rather than just dream about it.

I have been hacking hardware ever since I was 7 and I took apart my record player trying to work out how they managed to fit all four of the Beatles into such a small space! I have obsessively dismantled practically every electronic device I've ever owned and built several electronic devices from scratch more than I can count. I have a degree in Computer Science & Microelectronics and have worked on teams building missile guidance and weapon aiming technologies. And yet, I've learned more practical skill (as opposed to theoretical knowledge) from this book than my entire 1st year at college.

So, if you're interested in tinkering with hardware or are interested in how others do it, do yourself a favor and order this book now. You won't be disappointed :)

Good Reading
Very good book if you are a beginner at computer/xbox mods.Need to have a little electrical knowledge to understand a lot of what is in the book.It is not a how-to book, but a book that will make you think and try stuff on your own.Lot of information on copyrights, DCMA and stuff like that.A great book to show how to get started, methods that can be used, and computer structure.If you are a computer wiz, then this book would seem basic, if not this would be a good book to read before you start hacking. ... Read more

Product Description
A recent survey stated that 52% of embedded projects are late by 4-5 months. This book can help get those projects in on-time with design patterns. The author carefully takes into account the special concerns found in designing and developing embedded applications specifically concurrency, communication, speed, and memory usage. Patterns are given in UML (Unified Modeling Language) with examples including ANSI C for direct and practical application to C code.

A basic C knowledge is a prerequisite for the book while UML notation and terminology is included. General C programming books do not include discussion of the contraints found within embedded system design. The practical examples give the reader an understanding of the use of UML and OO (Object Oriented) designs in a resource-limited environment. Also included are two chapters on state machines. The beauty of this book is that it can help you today. .

*Design Patterns within these pages are immediately applicable to your project
*Addresses embedded system design concerns such as concurrency, communication, and memory usage
*Examples are contain ANSI C for ease of use with C programming code ... Read more

Product Description

Software product lines represent perhaps the most exciting paradigm shift in software development since the advent of high-level programming languages. Nowhere else in software engineering have we seen such breathtaking improvements in cost, quality, time to market, and developer productivity, often registering in the order-of-magnitude range. Here, the authors combine academic research results with real-world industrial experiences, thus presenting a broad view on product line engineering so that both managers and technical specialists will benefit from exposure to this work. They capture the wealth of knowledge that eight companies have gathered during the introduction of the software product line engineering approach in their daily practice.

Product Description
Model-Driven Software Development (MDSD) is currently a highly regarded development paradigm among developers and researchers. With the advent of OMG's MDA and Microsoft's Software Factories, the MDSD approach has moved to the centre of the programmer's attention, becoming the focus of conferences such as OOPSLA, JAOO and OOP.

MDSD is about using domain-specific languages to create models that express application structure or behaviour in an efficient and domain-specific way. These models are subsequently transformed into executable code by a sequence of model transformations.

This practical guide for software architects and developers is peppered with practical examples and extensive case studies. International experts deliver:
* A comprehensive overview of MDSD and how it relates to industry standards such as MDA and Software Factories.
* Technical details on meta modeling, DSL construction, model-to-model and model-to-code transformations, and software architecture.
* Invaluable insight into the software development process, plus engineering issues such as versioning, testing and product line engineering.
* Essential management knowledge covering economic and organizational topics, from a global perspective.

Get started and benefit from some practical support along the way! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Absolutely necessary for anyone who really wants to know MDSD
This book is practical and it has given me the knowledge to begin successfully the development of projects with this paradigm. ... Read more