Decision-making for Software Development Teams: Learn how to make mindful decisions in complex software ecosystems

by Francesco Strazzullo

What is a decision? What makes a decision important? How much do we struggle to make a decision? What type of impact do you think that decision will have?

Whatever the case - from choosing a programming language for a shiny new greenfield project to moving to a microservices architecture and everything in between - the life of a software developer is punctuated with decisions.

A good developer needs to be a good decision-maker, and decision-making is a crucial skill for software developers. This skill can be learnt and practised.

This book aims to introduce developers to some theoretical concepts about how to make mindful technical decisions. It is a journey throughout a decision-making process, with real-life examples and case studies.

The next time you and your team face a decision to be made, the stories and the easy-to-apply exercises in this book will help you understand how to involve the right people, gather valuable data and better analyze the context to decide how to decide.

Table of Contents

Why a book on decision-making for developers?

Chapter 1: Decision-making anti-patterns

Chapter 2: A decision-making process

Chapter 3: Involve the right people

Chapter 4: Gather data - Business needs

Chapter 5: Gather Data - Users

Chapter 6: Gather Data - Context

Chapter 7: Choose non-functional requirements

Chapter 8: Comparing solutions

Chapter 9: A decision-making a use case

Chapter 10: Deciding how to decide

Appendix Interviews

Appendix Cynefin Framework

260 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2022