The Software Developer's Guide

Rating:
Summary: If you don't have a process, you need this book
Review: I had been "winging it" (as Whil might say) for critical pieces of the software development process. The most obvious example comes in the area of pricing. A customer tells you what they need, then they invariably ask how much. How do you answer that question? Whil lists 5 of the most common techniques, which are all variations of "winging it." I had probably tried all 5. After educating you on the various processes you may incorporate, he explains a very practical way to go about pricing applications. It's not easy, but it's extremely valuable.

After reading this book, I now see that before you can understand how to price a system, you have to understand your processes. Are you using structured development, RAD, or Agile Methodologies? A big part of the process of pricing involves educating your customers and managing expectations, two things I had always tried to do but until reading Whil's book, I wasn't sure how to do.

But pricing is just the tip of the iceberg. He has great, actionable, generally easy to implement suggestions for running your business (or department). For example, I had always been of the mindset that a big job is a good job (it means lots of money, right?). This just ain't so. Whil has a great quote in there - I'm just paraphrasing, but it's something to the effect of "if you can't say no to a job, then you'll soon be working for someone who can." He really covers all aspects of the business, including marketing, hiring, etc.

If you're looking for specific programming techniques, you won't find them here. This is all about process, and running a software business. But I realize more than ever that process is as important as the specific programming technologies you use, and ignoring process represents a huge risk to your business.

If you run your own show (or ever want to) and don't have clearly defined, effective processes in place, this book is a must have. I'm sure it's equally effective for corporate developers looking to run their departments more efficiently.

Rating:
Summary: If you don't have a process, you need this book
Review: I had been "winging it" (as Whil might say) for critical pieces of the software development process. The most obvious example comes in the area of pricing. A customer tells you what they need, then they invariably ask how much. How do you answer that question? Whil lists 5 of the most common techniques, which are all variations of "winging it." I had probably tried all 5. After educating you on the various processes you may incorporate, he explains a very practical way to go about pricing applications. It's not easy, but it's extremely valuable.

After reading this book, I now see that before you can understand how to price a system, you have to understand your processes. Are you using structured development, RAD, or Agile Methodologies? A big part of the process of pricing involves educating your customers and managing expectations, two things I had always tried to do but until reading Whil's book, I wasn't sure how to do.

But pricing is just the tip of the iceberg. He has great, actionable, generally easy to implement suggestions for running your business (or department). For example, I had always been of the mindset that a big job is a good job (it means lots of money, right?). This just ain't so. Whil has a great quote in there - I'm just paraphrasing, but it's something to the effect of "if you can't say no to a job, then you'll soon be working for someone who can." He really covers all aspects of the business, including marketing, hiring, etc.

If you're looking for specific programming techniques, you won't find them here. This is all about process, and running a software business. But I realize more than ever that process is as important as the specific programming technologies you use, and ignoring process represents a huge risk to your business.

If you run your own show (or ever want to) and don't have clearly defined, effective processes in place, this book is a must have. I'm sure it's equally effective for corporate developers looking to run their departments more efficiently.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for software developers
Review: If you design and write software for a living, you need to read this book. In fact, it's one of those you should read once a year to remind you of the right way to do things.

The earlier editions of this book were extremely useful, but focused primarily on the idea of fixed-price software development. While that's still a key idea in this edition, there's significant new material looking at other kinds of software development processes. In addition, the coverage of the business aspects of software development has been expanded.

On the business side, the book talks about getting started in the development business, finding clients, getting paid, finding and keeping employees, and, of course, when to run away from a prospective client. On the development side, it looks at writing specifications (including dealing with clients who don't think you need a specification), pricing applications, handling bugs, testing, and a host of other issues.

It may sound like this book is only for independent developers, but there's plenty of wisdom here for corporate developers as well.

Best of all, the book is well-written and is an easy read. The combination of information with war stories and anecdotes makes it a book you won't mind reading on your own time.