Structured Analysis and System Specification

Rating:
Summary: A classic and worth the price
Review: If I had to own one book on software design, this would be it. Everywhere I've taken it, people have wondered if some of the examples were "their company." It was introduced to me by a former boss and is easily worth 10x the price of all the courses in "design" I had. Most design is done backwards. DeMarco explains why that is.

Rating:
Summary: A classic and worth the price
Review: If I had to own one book on software design, this would be it. Everywhere I've taken it, people have wondered if some of the examples were "their company." It was introduced to me by a former boss and is easily worth 10x the price of all the courses in "design" I had. Most design is done backwards. DeMarco explains why that is.

Rating:
Summary: Now I understand what college tried to teach!
Review: Many of the concepts adressed in Systems Analysis and Design classes are explained here in an easy to read and easy to understand format. The concepts are backed up with examples that help the reader to conceptualize the main points. I used to struggle with what I though I learned from my college classes, this book turned on the light!

Rating:
Summary: Now I understand what college tried to teach!
Review: Many of the concepts adressed in Systems Analysis and Design classes are explained here in an easy to read and easy to understand format. The concepts are backed up with examples that help the reader to conceptualize the main points. I used to struggle with what I though I learned from my college classes, this book turned on the light!

Rating:
Summary: Changed the way I look at programming
Review: This book offers data flow as a simple and powerful metaphor for programming. The idea is this: look at a program as a black box that takes information in and spews information out, then at each stage refine this black box by breaking it out into individual ones. I read this book many years ago and it remains the most useful book on program design that I have read. It was written before object oriented programming but it adapts to it in an obvious way. Forget about UML. Data flow is the best way of presenting the elusive big picture view, that view of the forest that gets obscured by all those trees. It has the following virtues offered nowhere else: 1. It serves as a design tool that you can work with and refine to identify object classes. 2. It is easily understood by computer illiterate clients. 3. It allows programmers new to a project to quickly come up to speed.

Rating:
Summary: Read this classic first!
Review: This book on analysis and requirements specification is well worth the read. It really is the classic exposition of structured analysis and it is remarkable how many of the ideas presented are still in use. The only section I found somewhat out of date was the material on data access diagrams, which I have never seen anyone actually use in any shop I have worked with. Otherwise this book would rate 5 stars. The language and style is clear and practical without being patronizing. Examples are plentiful so if you want, you can actually go through each step. If you have done this sort of thing professionally you will find yourself reading rapidly. So much of this work is already a part of your knowledge. With that said, even if you have been working in the field a number of years you will still find information that is new and revealing. As such it is a reference, a review and a tutorial.