Software Development Edge, The: Essays on Managing Successful Projects

"This set of articles captures decades of in-the trenches experience across a broad spectrum of software topics. Joe Marasco has the scars and the smarts to articulate patterns of success that can satisfy a broad audience. He uses mathematics, physics, common sense, and storytelling along with a no-candy-coating style to provide unique perspectives on significant problems in delivering software results as a business. Whether you are a computer science theoretician, a frustrated software project manager, a successful businessman, or a skeptical programmer, you will learn a lot from this compilation."
—Walker Royce, Vice President, IBM Software Services-Rational, and author of Software Project Management (Addison-Wesley)

"Joe Marasco's readable essays on managing successful projects show that software development managers—no different from all managers—must embrace the fundamentals of management if they are to succeed: working through people and process to be decisive, dealing with politics, keeping on schedule, and, yes, shipping a well-developed product. Marasco uses plain English to explain many integrated skills, ranging from estimating the time it will take to really do things, to negotiating effectively, even to eloquently describing three distinct phases of our personal development. He frequently uses a 'can we talk?' conversation with a fictional colleague, Roscoe Leroy, in a Socratic dialogue to illustrate the two sides to a point in many areas (reminiscent of Galileo's writings to explain his then-heretical views); in this case, Marasco's advice will help technology professionals escape the clutches of pervasive Dilbertian incompetence, and enable readers to be more effective in our ever-changing world."
—Carl Selinger, author of Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School: Skills for Success in the Real World (Wiley-IEEE Press), and contributing editor of IEEE Spectrum magazine

The new software management classic: in-the-trenches wisdom from legendary project leader Joe Marasco

Over the course of a distinguished career, Joe Marasco earned a reputation as the go-to software project manager: the one to call when you were facing a brutally tough, make-or-break project. Marasco reflected on his experiences in a remarkable series of "Franklin's Kite" essays for The Rational Edge, Rational and IBM's online software development magazine. Now, Marasco collects and updates those essays, bringing his unique insights (and humor) to everything from modeling to scheduling, team dynamics to compensation. The result: a new classic that deserves a place alongside Frederick Brooks' The Mythical Man-Month in the library of every developer and software manager. If you want to ship products you're proud of... ship on time and on budget... deliver real customer value... you simply must read The Software Development Edge.

Highlights include

• How software projects resemble other projects—and how they're different

• The iterative problem-solving clock: ending the day with real solutions

• The realities of scheduling: How late are you going to be?

• Trade-offs, estimating, project rhythm, and getting products out the door

• Understanding what you're seeing, hearing, and feeling as a software manager

• The human element: politics, negotiation, compensation, culture, and growth

• Avoiding crises before they happen... and mitigating them when they do

• Thinking laterally: original ideas in software project management

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