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Software Development Pearls: Lessons from Fifty Years of Software Experience
Accelerate Your Pursuit of Software Excellence by Learning from Others' Hard-Won Experience
Karl is one of the most thoughtful software people I know. He has reflected deeply on the software development irritants he has encountered over his career, and this book contains 60 of his most valuable responses.
-- From the Foreword by Steve McConnell, Construx Software and author of Code Complete Wouldn't it be great to gain a lifetime's experience without having to pay for the inevitable errors of your own experience? Karl Wiegers is well versed in the best techniques of business analysis, software engineering, and project management. You'll gain concise but important insights into how to recover from setbacks as well as how to avoid them in the first place.
--Meilir Page-Jones, Senior Business Analyst, Wayland Systems Inc.
Experience is a powerful teacher, but it's also slow and painful. You can't afford to make every mistake yourself! Software Development Pearls helps you improve faster and bypass much of the pain by learning from others who already climbed the learning curves. Drawing on 25+ years helping software teams succeed, Karl Wiegers has crystallized 60 concise, practical lessons for all your projects, regardless of your role, industry, technology, or methodology.
Wiegers's insights and specific recommendations cover six crucial elements of success: requirements, design, project management, culture and teamwork, quality, and process improvement. For each, Wiegers offers First Steps for reflecting on your own experiences before you start; detailed Lessons with core insights, real case studies, and actionable solutions; and Next Steps for planning adoption in your project, team, or organization. This is knowledge you weren't taught in college or boot camp. It can boost your performance as a developer, business analyst, quality professional, or manager.
Clarify requirements to gain a shared vision and understanding of your real problem Create robust designs that implement the right functionality and quality attributes and can evolve Anticipate and avoid ubiquitous project management pitfalls Grow a culture in which behaviors actually align with what people claim to value Plan realistically for quality and build it in from the outset Use process improvement to achieve desired business results, not as an end in itself Choose your next steps to get full value from all these lessons Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.
Karl is one of the most thoughtful software people I know. He has reflected deeply on the software development irritants he has encountered over his career, and this book contains 60 of his most valuable responses.
-- From the Foreword by Steve McConnell, Construx Software and author of Code Complete Wouldn't it be great to gain a lifetime's experience without having to pay for the inevitable errors of your own experience? Karl Wiegers is well versed in the best techniques of business analysis, software engineering, and project management. You'll gain concise but important insights into how to recover from setbacks as well as how to avoid them in the first place.
--Meilir Page-Jones, Senior Business Analyst, Wayland Systems Inc.
Experience is a powerful teacher, but it's also slow and painful. You can't afford to make every mistake yourself! Software Development Pearls helps you improve faster and bypass much of the pain by learning from others who already climbed the learning curves. Drawing on 25+ years helping software teams succeed, Karl Wiegers has crystallized 60 concise, practical lessons for all your projects, regardless of your role, industry, technology, or methodology.
Wiegers's insights and specific recommendations cover six crucial elements of success: requirements, design, project management, culture and teamwork, quality, and process improvement. For each, Wiegers offers First Steps for reflecting on your own experiences before you start; detailed Lessons with core insights, real case studies, and actionable solutions; and Next Steps for planning adoption in your project, team, or organization. This is knowledge you weren't taught in college or boot camp. It can boost your performance as a developer, business analyst, quality professional, or manager.
Clarify requirements to gain a shared vision and understanding of your real problem Create robust designs that implement the right functionality and quality attributes and can evolve Anticipate and avoid ubiquitous project management pitfalls Grow a culture in which behaviors actually align with what people claim to value Plan realistically for quality and build it in from the outset Use process improvement to achieve desired business results, not as an end in itself Choose your next steps to get full value from all these lessons Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.
336 pages, Paperback
Published November 4, 2021
15 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Karl Wiegers
19 books44 followersKarl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software development consulting and training company in Portland, Oregon. He has a PhD in organic chemistry. Karl is the author of 14 books, including Software Requirements Essentials (with Candase Hokanson), Software Development Pearls, The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Software Requirements (with Joy Beatty), More About Software Requirements, Successful Business Analysis Consulting, and a forensic mystery novel titled The Reconstruction.
Karl has also written many articles on software development, design, project management, chemistry, military history, consulting, and self-help, as well as 18 songs. He has delivered hundreds of training courses, webinars, and conference presentations worldwide. When he's not at the keyboard, Karl enjoys wine tasting, volunteering (library and Meals on Wheels), playing guitar, recording songs (hear them at https://www.karlwiegers.com/songs.html), military history, and traveling.
You can reach Karl at https://www.ProcessImpact.com or https://www.KarlWiegers.com.
Karl has also written many articles on software development, design, project management, chemistry, military history, consulting, and self-help, as well as 18 songs. He has delivered hundreds of training courses, webinars, and conference presentations worldwide. When he's not at the keyboard, Karl enjoys wine tasting, volunteering (library and Meals on Wheels), playing guitar, recording songs (hear them at https://www.karlwiegers.com/songs.html), military history, and traveling.
You can reach Karl at https://www.ProcessImpact.com or https://www.KarlWiegers.com.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 6, 2023
This book is a great choice for an audio book about software development. Almost no need to look up anything and it is light enough to able to concentrate while running :D
The content is good too. There is a lot of focus on requirement engineering and project management. Even more so than on development. This book is good to remind us that there is much more to the software lifecycle than just writing code.
The content is good too. There is a lot of focus on requirement engineering and project management. Even more so than on development. This book is good to remind us that there is much more to the software lifecycle than just writing code.
September 30, 2025
"Software Development Pearls: Lessons from Fifty Years of Software Experience" is a solid, easily accessible and immensely insightful book that should be of use to most professionals who develop, operate or maintain complex software systems. The "pearls" mentioned in the title are a collection of 60 succinct and clearly stated lessons that illustrate common principles and pitfalls that any professional needs to address. Additionally each chapter includes a foundational essay on its subject matter and a set of questions that teams can address together while planning their work. Thus this book serves as both a learning aid and a foundation for collaborative team efforts.
August 30, 2025
Software development is often seen as a purely technical field, but in reality, it’s deeply human. The ability to listen to clients, empathize with end-users, and collaborate effectively within teams is what makes projects succeed. That’s one of the reasons why I think Empat Tech is a good example of how to combine empathy with technology. Their approach to building software isn’t just about shipping features – it’s about making sure those features truly solve problems for people. This mindset reduces wasted effort, increases adoption, and ultimately leads to better ROI for businesses. For me, software development done right is less about lines of code and more about creating tools that empower people in meaningful ways.
December 1, 2021
This is a brilliant technology-agnostic book containing practical advice for novice as well as experienced professionals involved in software development as well as students looking forward to a career in software development. Dr. Karl Wiegers has presented a collection of lessons that he has learned over his long and impressive career in software development and management in an organized fashion, in six critical discussion areas in software development : requirements, design, project management, culture and teamwork, quality, and process improvement, which will provide the reader with useful insights and stop them from making costly mistakes in their software development projects.
June 30, 2022
💡If you do not have time to do it right, when do you have time to do it over?
👉This book is definitely a collection of pearls for software development! With many years of practical and couching experience, author points to multiple ways to succeed and engineer quality through software development cycle!
👉I could recommend it as refresherner for experienced specialists and a practical learning tool for those new in IT!
👉This book is definitely a collection of pearls for software development! With many years of practical and couching experience, author points to multiple ways to succeed and engineer quality through software development cycle!
👉I could recommend it as refresherner for experienced specialists and a practical learning tool for those new in IT!
December 2, 2021
Definitely good book. You won't find a single line of code here, thanks to that the book is universal. There are 60 lessons on general software development topics from areas like: requirements analysis, design, project management, culture and teamwork, quality and finally on process improvements. Many real life exaples.
December 23, 2022
Very interesting and actionable software development pearls distilled from a whole career.
August 12, 2024
Too basic with too generic concepts. And in my opinion they are backwards of helping to make the process more efficient, effective and satisfactory.
September 6, 2024
Great!
February 15, 2025
This book contains valuable insights for people who work in software industry. All of the lessons here are practical and you can use them right after reading. Lessons are applicable for both teams and individuals who want to improve the way they work and communicate with customers and in teams. After reading this book you certainly can become more effective if you really look for ways to change and improve.
Additionally this book has very rich vocabulary so I enriched mine with many great words and phrases.
Additionally this book has very rich vocabulary so I enriched mine with many great words and phrases.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews