Description
In Great Software Debates, Al Davis, shares what he has learned about the difference between the theory and the realities of business and encourages you to question and think about software engineering in ways that will help you succeed where others fail.
In short, provocative essays, Davis fearlessly reveals the truth about process improvement, productivity, software quality, metrics, agile development, requirements documentation, modeling, software marketing and sales, empiricism, start-up financing, software research, requirements triage, software estimation, and entrepreneurship. He will get you thinking about:
- The danger of following trends and becoming a 'software lemming'
- Is software development art or engineering?
- How to survive management mistakes
- The bizarre world of software estimation
- How to succeed as software entrepreneur
- How to resolve incompatible schedules and requirements
If you are in the software industry and do not know which way to turn, Great Software Debates provides valuable and insightful advice. Whether you are a software developer, software manager, software executive, entrepreneur, requirements writer, architect, designer, or tester, you will find no shortage of sound, palatable advice.
About the Author
ALAN M. DAVIS is a prolific author with over twenty-five years' experience consulting for over 100 major corporations worldwide including Boeing, Cigna Insurance, Federal Express, General Electric and the Software Productivity Consortium. He is currently a professor of information systems at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He was president of Omni-Vista, Inc., a vice president at BTG, Inc., and a director of R&D at GTE Communication Systems. He was a member of the board of directors for Requisite, Inc., acquired by Rational Software Corporation in 1997, and subsequently acquired by IBM in 2003. He is the author of 201 Principles of Software Development, Software Requirements: Objects, Functions and States, Second Edition, and Just Enough Requirements Management.
Reviews
"'Great Software Debates' is a gift of Alan Davis' experience, insight, wisdom, and humor. The essays' value is greatly increased by being collected in one place." (IEEE Software, November/December 2006)
"...hardly a week has gone by that I have not referenced it or recommended it to co-workers and friends...a concentrated treasure of suggestions, explanations, and principles." (Ubiquity, October 19, 2005)
"...expect[s] that the reader will think about and react to the content in some substantive way." (Software Quality Professional, March 2005)
"This book deserves a place on any software engineer's bookshelf...it will make you keep your brain in gear, an essential quality for software engineers..." (Computing Reviews.com, March 11, 2005)
"The author shares what he has learned about the difference between business theory and reality, encouraging readers to think about software engineering in ways that will help them succeed where others fail." (Computer Magazine, November 2004)
Book Information
ISBN 9780471675235
Author Alan M. Davis
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint John Wiley & Sons Inc
Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc
Weight(grams) 606g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 164mm * 25mm
