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Rapid Development (Paperback)
by Steve McConnell
| Category:
Software development, IT, Technology |
| Market price: ¥ 378.00
MSL price:
¥ 338.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A succinct, well organized and must-read collection of the lessons learned and best practices in software engineering over the last three decades. |
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Author: Steve McConnell
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Pub. in: July, 1996
ISBN: 1556159005
Pages: 680
Measurements: 9.3 x 7.4 x 1.7 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00533
Other information: 1st edition
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- MSL Picks -
Steve McConnell's books have always displayed a remarkable degree of practicality and readability. This book is no different.
The author says at the outset the Purpose of the book is to answer issues about trade-offs. The author says that software can be optimized for any of several goals: lowest defect rate, lowest cost, or shortest development, etc... Software Engineering is then about achieving tradeoffs, and this is what this book is primarily about.
Because the book is so big, it has been broken into sections that can be read selectively and quickly. A short book would have oversimplified things to the point of uselessness.
Organization of the book:
Parts 1, 2 deal with the Strategy and Philosophy of rapid development, while part 3 covers Rapid develoment best practices
In Chapter 3 the author talks about 'Classic Mistakes'. He calls them 'classic' and 'seductive' because they are so easy to make that they have been repeated in countless projects. The classic mistakes number 36 (though Steve M points out that a complete list could probably go on for pages and pages):
Undermined motivation, Weak personnel, uncontrolled problem employees, Heroics, Adding people to a late project, Noisy crowded offices, Friction between developers and customers , Unrealistic expectations, Lack of effective project sponsorship, Lack of stakeholder buy-in, Lack of user input, Politics placed over substance, Wishful thinking, Overly optimistic schedules, Insufficient risk management, Contractor failure, Insufficient planning, Abandonment of planning under pressure, Inadequate design, Planning to catch up later, Code-like-hell programming, Requirements gold-plating, Feature creep, Developer gold-plating, Push-me, pull-me negotiation, Research oriented development, Silver bullet syndrome, Overestimated savings from new tools or methods, Switching tools in the middle of a project, Lack of automated source-code control, Shortchanged quality assurance, Omitting necessary tasks from estimates, Short- changed front end upstream activities.
He categorizes these classic mistakes into four sets : People related, technology related, product related, and process related.
Part 2 covers rapid development issues in greater detail.
Core issues like Estimation, Scheduling, Lifecycle Planning, etc.. are covered. "Soft" issues like Motivation, Teamwork, Customer Oriented Developmentare also covered.
Part 3 is a compendium of best practices. There is a summary table of the each best practice, and the efficacies, major risks, major interactions and trade-offs listed.
Some candidate best practices not included are getting top people, Source Code Control, Requirements Analysis. These are listed as fundamental to a software project.
The Best Practices listed are:
JAD, Spiral Lifecycle Model, Theory W Management, Throwaway Proto- typing, Staged Delivery, Voluntary Overtime, Miniature Milestones, Out- sourcing, Reuse, User-Interface Prototyping, Change Board, Daily Build and Smoke Test, Tools Group.
As an example, Steve McConnel covers 'Inspections' stating the chances of its long term success are excellent, it reduces schedule risk, its improve- ment in progress visibility is only fair, has no major risks, it can be combined with virtually any other rapid development best practice
The book has a very engaging style of writing. Some quotes:
- Projects can look like a tortoise on valium to the customers, but as a rapid-development death march to the developers.
- The team ranks so low in the company that it has to pay to get its own team t-shirts.
- Rapid development isn't always efficient.
- Run every software project as an experiment (`Hawthorne Effect').
- If Las Vegas sounds too tame for you, software might be just the right gamble.
- The most common (and incorrect) definition of estimate is: `An estimate that has the most
optimistic prediction that has a non-zero probability of coming true' - Tom DeMarco
All in all, a fully deserved five stars! (From quoting Agarwal, India)
Target readers:
Software developers, Software development project leaders and managers, Students of Computer Science and University teachers.
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Steve McConnell is Chief Software Engineer at Construx Software where he oversees Construx's software engineering practices. Steve is the lead for the Construction Knowledge Area of the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) project. Steve has worked on software projects at Microsoft, Boeing, and other Seattle-area companies. Steve is the author of Rapid Development (1996), Software Project Survival Guide (1998), and Professional Software Development (2004). His books have twice won Software Development magazine's Jolt Excellence award for outstanding software development book of the year.
In 1998, readers of Software Development magazine named Steve one of the three most influential people in the software industry along with Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds. Steve was also the lead developer of SPC Estimate Professional, winner of a “Software Development Productivity” award. Steve has worked in the desktop software industry since 1984 and has expertise in rapid development methodologies, project estimation, software construction practices, performance tuning, system integration, and third-party contract management.
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From the Publisher:
Corporate and commercial software-development teams all want solutions for one important problem - how to get their high-pressure development schedules under control. In Rapid Development, author Steve McConnell addresses that concern head-on with overall strategies, specific best practices, and valuable tips that help shrink and control development schedules and keep projects moving. Inside, you'll find:
- A rapid-development strategy that can be applied to any project and the best practices to make that strategy work.
- Candid discussions of great and not-so-great rapid-development practices - estimation, prototyping, forced overtime, motivation, teamwork, rapid-development languages, risk management, and many others.
- A list of classic mistakes to avoid for rapid-development projects, including creeping requirements, shortchanged quality, and silver-bullet syndrome.
- Case studies that vividly illustrate what can go wrong, what can go right, and how to tell which direction your project is going.
Rapid Development is the real-world guide to more efficient applications development.
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| View all 18 comments |
Kincade (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Technology information is rarely organized and expressed with such insight and thoughtfulness, and out of such a confident sense that the software-production environment many of us increasingly live in could be a better place. This is an enormously valuable work for anyone from a computer-science student to the highest management in the information age - it takes seriously the social world of software engineering; McConnell's advice is sound and backed by research, experience, and an obvious passion. I buy this book regularly out of my own pocket for people starting in the business or joining my staff. |
James Butler (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
How can I add any value to the multitude of reviews that obviously say "You must buy this"?
When I was working 80 hours a week - this was the only book I read cover-to-cover.
When I lent my book to one of my staff and he left the firm, I bought another copy off the shelf within 24 hours (I couldn't wait for Amazon's delivery time). This was after having read the book twice.
This is the only book I have bought 3 copies: one for work, one for home, and one to share. It's the only book which caused me to specifically make a trip to the bookstore to get a signature and hear a writer speak.
This is the 2nd of McConnell's books I've read. Code Complete was great. I couldn't believe anything could be better but this book is it. It repeated a few facts and figures but it's worthwhile to have it reorganized and re-presented for a different view. This book has led me to be a confirmed McConnell reader. His other books are good, but this is his best. Unfortunately, my expectation is so high now that his subsequent books are not impressing me as much.
Because of this book, I will attend my second course from his company - even if it means flying into Seattle's rain. One book and he's hooked me for literally a thousand dollars - that's an effective writer!
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
This is one of the few large computer books I can say has the content to match its size. Rapid Development contains an extensive compilation of software development practices that have been used over the years. The nice thing about the book is the author clearly addresses where particular development practices should be applied then gives other references if the reader wants to get more detail about a topic. There are a lot of techniques in this book that I've seen addressed elsewhere, but never in such an understandable manner. The book is packed with useful information, and I'm very glad I bought it. I will use this one for years. |
An EU reader (MSL quote), Europe
<2007-01-10 00:00>
If you are involved in software development projects this is a book for you. Although oriented towards software project managers, the knowledge, insight, examples, and data make it a pool of useful information for anyone involved in software development projects.
Steve McConnell begins analyzing the causes why software projects fail, continues providing a list of classic mistakes (most of us learnt them in the hard way) and the ways to reach the maximum possible development speed by focusing on the four dimmenssions of any software project (people, process, product, and technology). The last part contains a list of "best practices" and analyzes the impact of them on the project schedule and development speed.
The book is easy to read (even for those among us that are not english spoken people), well structured, and full of useful references. The only drawback is, maybe, its age; be aware that is writen before the web revolution or the spring of eXtreme Programming. |
View all 18 comments |
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