, by Jim McCarthy
, by Tom Demarco and Timothy R. Lister
, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition) by Frederick P. Brooks
, by Michael Schrage
| Read any good books lately? We have!
Take a look at some of our recommendations. Ok, some of these
aren't books but they can make your life a little
simpler. |
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Thinking |
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| Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What The Problem Is. | Software development projects are
initiated to solve problems; too much pain or not enough gain.
Gerry Weinberg points out that we should spend more time finding
out what the real problem is before we attempt a solution. Today's
problems are caused by yesterday's solutions. |
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| Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion | Why do we do the things we do?
Why is software development and problem solving so difficult? This
book offers some great insights into how the human mind
works. Don't be put-off by the title!
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| Consulting |
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| The Trusted Advisor | It doesn't matter how snazzy your
development tools are and what Agile approach you're using; trust
will make or break you. Discover the power of creating trust with
your customers and peers. This is not a self-help
book! |
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| Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving Advice | One of the challenges with software
development is knowing how to deal with people; what do they want
and how can I help them? This quirky little book will enable you to
write great code- in the end! |
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| Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play | Khalsa's approach to selling
dovetails into the collaboration used in XP. Start creating
solutions with your customer from day one. Get the audio version
and become brainwashed! |
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| Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers | Get some insight into how new
technologies and products gain acceptance into the market. Could be
the only marketing book you'll every read! |
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| User Interface and
Design |
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| The Design of Everyday Things | Ever wonder VCR clocks are impossible
to program? Or are you one of the few people who've master
the mysterious art of time recording? Read this book and
you'll at least understand where the designers went
wrong. |
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| The Humane Interface: New Directions for Interface Design | Jef Raskin's claim to fame is as
one of the designers behind the Macintosh and Lisa
interfaces. This book puts some science into the sometimes
fuzzy area of interface design. Must read for anyone building
applications with user interfaces. |
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| Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Designing Web Usability | Jakob Neilson and be a little preachy
at times but on the whole this book works because, well, it just
makes sense! Hopefully, this site would not meet some
of his criteria for good Web design. I'm referring to the
lack of frames, small download size and non-browser specific
tags. |
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| Project
Management |
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| The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management. | Not another boring Project
Management book... Tom DeMarco spares us from this by weaving
wisdom through a clever piece of fiction set in some make believe
European state. If you're in a hurry, just skip to the end of
each chapter to get the main points. |
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| Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Complex Systems | This is the book that led me into XP.
Highsmith does some great thinking in this book and combines
academic with real-world experience. ASD has since be folded into
the Crystal development family but the ideas still hold true. I'll
never forget the look on my bosses face when I told he we would
"speculate" with customers. Priceless. |
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| Dynamics of Software Development | The "vibe" behind software
development. McCarthy led the initial of Visual C++ development at
Microsoft writes in a witty thought-provoking way about the fuzzy
world of software development. Build the product, ship
product! |
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| Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams | Agile bets people over process. People
win every time and this classic book explains how to benefit from
the power of your people. One of the most quoted software
development books around. |
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| The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering | This is the most quoted software
project management book. Most of Brook's advice and observations
are just as relevant today as when first published. If you only
read one project management book, make it this one. You're a
developer not a project manager? Or the more reason to get this;
you need to know what makes software development
"tick". |
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| No More Teams! Mastering the Dynamics of Creative Collaboration | Buy this book for the first 1/2 alone.
You'll gain understanding about what true "team" is and how vital
collaboration is to creativity. In later chapters, the author is a
little out-of-date as he describes computer-based
collaboration. |
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