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Quality Software #1.1
How Software is Built
This is part 1 of the latest edition of the classic, Quality Software Management. Its fundamental purpose is to teach how to understand the dynamics of software development organizations, to plan software projects, and to act effectively to carry out those plans.
Written from a technical and psychological perspective, describing how to think about what you do. The notation takes almost no effort to learn and use it. The diagrams are simple and easy to understand and used in a consistent manner.
The book offers ideas for coping with the very difficult problems that face those who work on projects where they don't have enough time, enough information, enough skill, or enough money to do a perfect job of anything. Given these limitations, managers have to make tradeoff decisions in light of the best understanding of cause and effect they can muster.
Reviewers say the book is a hidden treasure, containing within it the best definitions of quality ever published. It's written with a great sense of humor that helps make the lessons and insights you will get from the book easier to take.
For example, why is software development so often plagued by crisis? Weinberg helps the reader step back from developing software and examine the dynamics and patterns of software creation. By discussing patterns of quality, patterns of managing and patterns of software faults, the author shows that quality software begins with keen observation and clear thinking about software development. The text is extremely thought-provoking and is spiced with anecdotes drawn from decades of software experience.
The book is divided into three sections: "Patterns of Quality", "Patterns of Managing", and "Demands that Stress Patterns." Each section has a number of chapters that examine different systemic aspects of the specific issues.
In the "Patterns of Quality" section, Weinberg challenges our assumptions about what quality is, how to obtain it, and how to recognize how to change it. For those of you who are intimate with the SEI (Software Engineering Institute) CMM (Capability Maturity Model), this section provides compelling reasoning about the model, and about how dangerous level 2 can be to an organization.
The "Patterns of Managing" section was truly eye opening for me. I had been working on a measurement system at the company, and had been spectacularly unsuccessful obtaining useful metrics. I thought we needed these measurements so that we could understand what worked for us, and what needed to change. This section gave me a new understanding of how other people see the organization and their roles within the organization.
"Demands that Stress Patterns" discusses what happens in real organizations with real customers and real products. Jerry has a number of ideas about how to keep the development organization working productively.
Written from a technical and psychological perspective, describing how to think about what you do. The notation takes almost no effort to learn and use it. The diagrams are simple and easy to understand and used in a consistent manner.
The book offers ideas for coping with the very difficult problems that face those who work on projects where they don't have enough time, enough information, enough skill, or enough money to do a perfect job of anything. Given these limitations, managers have to make tradeoff decisions in light of the best understanding of cause and effect they can muster.
Reviewers say the book is a hidden treasure, containing within it the best definitions of quality ever published. It's written with a great sense of humor that helps make the lessons and insights you will get from the book easier to take.
For example, why is software development so often plagued by crisis? Weinberg helps the reader step back from developing software and examine the dynamics and patterns of software creation. By discussing patterns of quality, patterns of managing and patterns of software faults, the author shows that quality software begins with keen observation and clear thinking about software development. The text is extremely thought-provoking and is spiced with anecdotes drawn from decades of software experience.
The book is divided into three sections: "Patterns of Quality", "Patterns of Managing", and "Demands that Stress Patterns." Each section has a number of chapters that examine different systemic aspects of the specific issues.
In the "Patterns of Quality" section, Weinberg challenges our assumptions about what quality is, how to obtain it, and how to recognize how to change it. For those of you who are intimate with the SEI (Software Engineering Institute) CMM (Capability Maturity Model), this section provides compelling reasoning about the model, and about how dangerous level 2 can be to an organization.
The "Patterns of Managing" section was truly eye opening for me. I had been working on a measurement system at the company, and had been spectacularly unsuccessful obtaining useful metrics. I thought we needed these measurements so that we could understand what worked for us, and what needed to change. This section gave me a new understanding of how other people see the organization and their roles within the organization.
"Demands that Stress Patterns" discusses what happens in real organizations with real customers and real products. Jerry has a number of ideas about how to keep the development organization working productively.
316 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2010
13 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Gerald M. Weinberg
95 books372 followersGerald Marvin Weinberg (October 27, 1933 – August 7, 2018) was an American computer scientist, author and teacher of the psychology and anthropology of computer software development.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 2, 2022
It seems that this edition was done by re-scanning old books - "system dynamics" diagrams are hardly readable. Overall, it's not clear whether any corrector, not to mention editor, every read this book.
Still, there are interesting thoughts about applying system dynamics to different patterns of software organizations - from "citizen developers" (0) to "heroic programmers" (1) to Routine (2) to Steering (3).
Still, there are interesting thoughts about applying system dynamics to different patterns of software organizations - from "citizen developers" (0) to "heroic programmers" (1) to Routine (2) to Steering (3).
May 11, 2015
The starting book of the Software Quality series is an easy read that offers some great insights. Like many software projects it starts with a positive view on life and soon goes into the problematic parts where the challenges await. If you ever asked the question why projects can go so badly wrong you definitively should read this book.
The rest of the series is however a rollercoaster: Some books are great, others are full of nice ideas that unfortunately will be forgotten as soon as you put the book down. That said, this book is one of the good parts and will help you to understand the problem space quite nicely.
The rest of the series is however a rollercoaster: Some books are great, others are full of nice ideas that unfortunately will be forgotten as soon as you put the book down. That said, this book is one of the good parts and will help you to understand the problem space quite nicely.
February 7, 2017
Thin eyes I went I went to the problem solving leadership course of Jerry I read quite some of his books and this was one of the bests.
I like the style on how he uses own stories, cause effect diagrams and some simple nice models to make you think.
I like the style on how he uses own stories, cause effect diagrams and some simple nice models to make you think.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews