No matter what anyone says, you can build extraordinarily high-quality software - and this book shows you exactly how the world's best software development organizations are doing it. The best practices described in this book cover the entire software lifecycle. Each chapter describes a real-world problem, and how it was identified, addressed and fixed. Coverage includes project planning, metrics, inspections, software reliability; unit, system and acceptance testing; design and construction, release control, post-implementation reviews and more. This will be an invaluable resource for anyone involved in software development, including developers, testers and project managers.
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Dare To Be Excellent, edited by Alka Jarvis and Linda Hayes, offers case histories and names names from the annals of huge development efforts. It's not a book for Dilbert, it's a book for Dilbert's boss, who might indeed be better off for having read it.
The subtitle of the book, "Case Studies of Software Engineering Practices That Worked" is a misnomer. It's like having a book on container cargo shipping subtitled "Adventures in Sailing." That which programmers call software engineering is not on the table. The topic is management of large-scale software development.
On this subject the authors and editors are fully qualified to comment. Principals in projects carried out on behalf of Texas Instruments, Intel, PKS, Royal Bank, Primark Investment Services, Cisco, IBS, and others have contributed papers on significant initiatives carried to success despite many challenges and obstacles.
Technologists prove things to a number of significant digits; managers must make rapid decisions based on incomplete information while being lobbied in several directions. This is the difference between engineering and management. The value of Dare To Be Excellent is that it conveys to managers homely truths, many of which are arrived at more easily by technologists than by managers. --Jack Woehr, Dr. Dobb's Journal -- Dr. Dobb's Journal
From the Inside Flap
Preface
Software development has matured to the point where known engineering practices donÕt need to be defined, they need to be applied. We know what needs to happen, but the inevitable details of how to make it work are often a stumbling block. Too many times, discipline is sacrificed to competing needs and schedule constraints: Taking the time to do things may be viewed as an impractical ideal.
Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Doing things right reaps continuous rewards that are no less valuable for being difficult to measure: reduced rework and support costs, improved time to market, and increased customer satisfaction. Because it is hard to measure the costs you avoid, but easy to track the costs you incur, the investment in process improvement may be more obvious than the rewards.
The trick is to follow the spirit of a process, not necessarily the form: depending on the size of the project and organizational environment, it may be wise to condense or circumscribe certain aspects. Fit the practice to the situation instead of the other way around.
There are quite a lot of software engineering practices in the world that are viewed to bring ÒsuccessÓ to your software development, and there are several books on theories of development practices. Often, you are at a loss to identify companies who may have implemented these theories. So, the question comes up: How do I know the theories described in a book really work? The best way to understand a process and how to implement it is through actual examples, which is what this book is all about.
The authors have extensive experience in several software engineering quality improvement techniques to know that what one large company does may not be appropriate for another small company, or that what works for a software development organization in one industrial segment may not work the same way in another. Over the years we have encountered software developers, quality assurance managers, ISO implementors, students, executives, managers, supervisors, consultants, and testers who asked us to give them examples of companies that introduced a process change and the logistics as well as the results of this change. This question inspired us to embark upon a journey to capture real scenarios.
We know most of you are faced with immediate problems of managing software development and do not have time to benchmark or improve current processes based on what has worked for others. Unfortunately, software development does not excel by implementing one or two simple techniques. It is an accumulation of many complex processes which requires integration of project controls and technical knowledge. Quality is built into software products through careful project management and processes that have been known to reduce defects and increase productivity.
Until now (this is the first!), there has been no book that describes case studies of software engineering principles under one cover. We have chosen a variety of companies, big and small, from different aspects of the overall industry such as financial, telecommunications, service, consulting, etc. Each of these companies chose a software improvement path and made a commitment to follow the path to see the ultimate results. Each company stumbled upon different road-blocks that they had to overcome.
This book presents what each company did, what their reason was for implementing the new process, what were the cultural issues, and what were the final results. So many times, we see an organization trying to implement a process change and then abnormally ending the project in search of a Òquick fix.Ó The cases of the companies represented in this book show a lot of perseverance, dedication, and good Òfollow-through.Ó The companies may not resemble your own, it is the way they applied a practice to make it succeed for them that is the most instructive: Not just what did or didnÕt work, but how and why. You can learn universal principles from the mistakes and successes of others.
This book seeks to convey an understanding of what worked in the software development process and how managing that process to obtain quality software while improving the overall productivity helped each company achieve a particular goal. Each chapter provides a comprehensive description of the process adhered by a specific company.
Chapter 1: Focuses on requirements.
Chapters 2, 3 and 4: Describe different aspects of project planning, project management, and project support office.
Chapter 5: Provides details of using inspections as an agent of change.
Chapter 6: Highlights software reliability.
Chapter 7: Talks about release planning.
Chapter 8: Gives you guidance on release metrics.
Chapter 9: Talks about creation of a Software Development Process Handbook.
Chapter 10: Discusses managing client/vendor relationships.
While we know the importance of software measurements, we have decided to direct our readers to Grady (1987).
This book captures case studies of companies who mastered an area of software development and who, by example, can guide your own efforts.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dare to be Execellent,
By
This review is from: Dare to Be Excellent: Case Studies of Software Engineering Practices That Worked (Paperback)
Of the 10 case studies in the book all were at least interesting and some were very useful. They are focused on commerical and product development processes, so the one reviewer that was looking for embedded and realtime SQA would naturally be disapointed. Not all the companies presented are house hold words, by they are all non-trivial examples of process improvements in the SQA domain. Each case study is structured in the same manner, with both technical and non-techncial aspects of the SQA problem described in moderate detail. I'm sure each companies PR department reviewed the materials, but they are still insigthful. Several of the SQA process are based on the SEI CMM paradigm, so many of the diagrams look familar. Taken as a whole this book should be mandatory reading for any SQA or software development manager. Much of the material could be put to direct use as is. Several of the products are finacial or back office offerings, so they may not be of interest to the lastest intrnet generation. However for those of us tasked with building the boring database transaction processing applications, this book is a welcome addition. I would recommend this book as source material for anyone engaged in Software Process Improvement.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
set of 10 fairy tales,
By A Customer
This review is from: Dare to Be Excellent: Case Studies of Software Engineering Practices That Worked (Paperback)
I found this book to be almost useless. Basically it is a set of ten puffed up pieces that look like they were written by company PR shops. You may as well read the ISO 9000-3 manuals.Little of the true agony of large software development showed. Having been involved in several large software efforts and in process improvement, I found the book to be very antiseptic and clean -- without any of the real messiness of real software development. Addtionally, the cases presented were slanted totally towards straight business and did not address anything related to embedded or real-time development practices. I was sorely disappointed in this book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Real Life examples,
By A Customer
This review is from: Dare to Be Excellent: Case Studies of Software Engineering Practices That Worked (Paperback)
No more theories! This book gives ten examples of real-life case studies. The comapnies participating are from financial industry to high-tech. Software Quality is no longer a mystery. The book and the case studies shows that with discipline, everything is possible.
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