Great Software Debates (Practitioners) [Hardcover]

Alan M. Davis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471675237 | ISBN-13: 978-0471675235 | Publication Date: October 8, 2004 | Edition: 1

The industry’s most outspoken and insightful critic explains how the software industry REALLY works.

In Great Software Debates, Al Davis, shares what he has learned about the difference between the theory and the realities of business and encourages you to question and think about software engineering in ways that will help you succeed where others fail.

In short, provocative essays, Davis fearlessly reveals the truth about process improvement, productivity, software quality, metrics, agile development, requirements documentation, modeling, software marketing and sales, empiricism, start-up financing, software research, requirements triage, software estimation, and entrepreneurship. He will get you thinking about:

• The danger of following trends and becoming a ‘software lemming’
• Is software development art or engineering?
• How to survive management mistakes
• The bizarre world of software estimation
• How to succeed as software entrepreneur
• How to resolve incompatible schedules and requirements

If you are in the software industry and do not know which way to turn, Great Software Debates provides valuable and insightful advice. Whether you are a software developer, software manager, software executive, entrepreneur, requirements writer, architect, designer, or tester, you will find no shortage of sound, palatable advice.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Great Software Debates' is a gift of Alan Davis' experience, insight, wisdom, and humor. The essays' value is greatly increased by being collected in one place." (IEEE Software, November/December 2006)

"...hardly a week has gone by that I have not referenced it or recommended it to co-workers and friends...a concentrated treasure of suggestions, explanations, and principles." (Ubiquity, October 19, 2005)

"…expect[s] that the reader will think about and react to the content in some substantive way." (Software Quality Professional, March 2005)

"This book deserves a place on any software engineer's bookshelf…it will make you keep your brain in gear, an essential quality for software engineers…" (Computing Reviews.com, March 11, 2005)

"The author shares what he has learned about the difference between business theory and reality, encouraging readers to think about software engineering in ways that will help them succeed where others fail." (Computer Magazine, November 2004)

From the Back Cover

The industry’s most outspoken and insightful critic explains how the software industry REALLY works.

In Great Software Debates, Al Davis, shares what he has learned about the difference between the theory and the realities of business and encourages you to question and think about software engineering in ways that will help you succeed where others fail.

In short, provocative essays, Davis fearlessly reveals the truth about process improvement, productivity, software quality, metrics, agile development, requirements documentation, modeling, software marketing and sales, empiricism, start-up financing, software research, requirements triage, software estimation, and entrepreneurship. He will get you thinking about:

• The danger of following trends and becoming a ‘software lemming’
• Is software development art or engineering?
• How to survive management mistakes
• The bizarre world of software estimation
• How to succeed as software entrepreneur
• How to resolve incompatible schedules and requirements

If you are in the software industry and do not know which way to turn, Great Software Debates provides valuable and insightful advice. Whether you are a software developer, software manager, software executive, entrepreneur, requirements writer, architect, designer, or tester, you will find no shortage of sound, palatable advice.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Pr; 1 edition (October 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471675237
• ISBN-13: 978-0471675235
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,786,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Al Davis is a professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He was a member of the board of directors of Requisite, Inc., acquired by Rational Software Corporation in February 1997, and subsequently acquired by IBM in 2003. He has consulted for many corporations over the past thirty years, including Boeing, Cigna Insurance, Federal Express, FrontRange Solutions, IBM, Loral, MCI, Software Productivity Consortium, Storage Tek, Sumitomo, and XAware. Previously, he was Chairman and CEO of Omni-Vista, Inc., VP of Engineering Services at BTG, Inc., a Director of R&D at GTE Communication Systems. He has held academic positions at George Mason U and temporary academic positions and/or Fulbrights at Atma Jaya U in Yogyakarta (Indonesia); U of Jos (Nigeria); U Politécnica de Madrid (Spain); U of Technology, Sydney (Australia); and U of the Western Cape (South Africa).

He has been a fellow of the IEEE since 1994, and earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the U Illinois in 1975. Find out more about him at www.reqbib.com/adavis.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rehash of Essays from IEEE Software, November 11, 2004

By 

K. Victor Volle (Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Software Debates (Practitioners) (Hardcover)

This not a bad book, but if you happen to read IEEE Software regularly, there is almost nothing new. I have not yet read the whole book, and Davis claims that he has updated the original articles, but most of the stuff has not changed.

On the other hand, if you have not read the articles before, they are quite fun to read, e.g. "Art or Engineering, One More Time".

But I have an issue with the title: the "debates" are mostly some paragraphs at the end of the article, that are more like questions in a text book that might start a debate, but do not really dig into a controversial issue.

I very much prefer, Robert E. Glass': "Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering", which contains similiar topics, but is much more to the point. And makes the controversies on his issues much more explicit.

Funnily, Glass, on the other hand, thinks very highly of an older book of Davis': "201 Principles of Software Development"

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the company was not innovative enough, January 3, 2006

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Software Debates (Practitioners) (Hardcover)

Davis presents a set of essays on various aspects of developing software. But these are not at the narrow technical level of purely programming issues. Instead they concern higher level and more intangible matters. Often involving managing a team.

Especially interesting was a chapter where Davis delved into a software startup that he cofounded. It gave the travails faced by many startups, and not just in computing. Like how they started in a garage and then upgraded to an unfinished office space. And how the founders shared all sorts of information with their employees.

But his company seemed to have two key problems. While they applied for 3 patents, these were ultimately denied by the US Patent and Trademark Office, because others had pre-empted them. So unfortunately, they were not innovative enough. Or, at least, not innovative early enough.

Another problem appears to have been the narrow scope of their products. These did not address critical enough problems at potential customers. Resulting in very few sales.