Professional Software Development

Professional Software Development: Shorter Schedules, Higher Quality Products, More Successful Projects, Enhanced Careers by SteveMcConnell ISBN 0321193679

: An updated and significantly expanded edition of AfterTheGoldRush

Reviews

I was very disappointed in this book, even more so when I realized it was an update of a previous book. The book is not terribly clear in its intent and relies largely on innuendo, circular reasoning, and knocking down strawmen rather than any basis in theory or fact.

For example, SW-CMM ("process-oriented") is implied to be the correct approach, except if the company happens to be Microsoft ("commitment-oriented"), which does not need it. If a company tries SW-CMM (or the Microsoft approach), and fails, then it is a "Software Imposter."

The book gets even muddier as it discusses Accreditation, Certification, and Licensing, without ever trying to justify why any of them would be necessary. The rationale seems to consist of:

If we only had licensing, software developers would be respected by the general population.
Engineering has it, so software development should also.
Provide a justification for the IEEE in software.

Rather than supporting the case for more professionalism in software development, the book highlights the lack of solid research in the field of software development. This was an extremely disappointing and poorly written book.

-- WayneMack

Having read the online version of AfterTheGoldRush, I strongly agree with WayneMack's assessment above. As PCP (PhilipCraigPlumlee?) puts it on OrphansPreferred, "SteveMcConnell has demonstrated his masterful ability to document the screaming obvious so even managers can 'get' it." The point being that this book is a total waste of time for anyone besides a manager to read. If only the web were a Wiki, AfterTheGoldRush would be replaced by DeleteNoContent.

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