Leading a Software Development Team: A developer's guide to successfully leading people & projects [Paperback]

Richard Whitehead (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201675269 | ISBN-13: 978-0201675269 | Publication Date: June 24, 2001 | Edition: 1

This book aims to provide help and advice for IT professionals in this situation by offering solutions to the most commonly encountered problems, such as getting a project out on time, coping with the demands of leading a team, implementing new methodologies or technologies. It is written by a team leader for other team leaders with a focus on practical advice rather than management theory or process issues. It would be targeted at experienced software engineers, developers and architects who have been promoted to the role of team leader.

Editorial Reviews

Review

 "Fear not. This book will help you become an effective and respected team leader... the view from the trenches will help guide you in making your own decisions in the context of your own organization and its values... With Whitehead as your mentor, you can anticipate and diffuse problems. Soon you will be as effective as a team leader as you were as a developer"  - Shari Lawrence Pfleeger  "This is a book for the real world. Suppose you are the team leader of a software project. You thought you did all the right things at every stage. Yet the project came in three months late and the application crashed continuously when it went live. What could you have done to prevent this? This book gives the answers. Structured round common questions which should occur to every new team leader "How do I earn the respect of my team?", "How do I draw up a project plan?", it discusses the activities which you need to master"  Donald Matthews, Project Team Leader, AIT 

This is a book on how to cope with the dizzy heights of leadership without getting vertigo or offending everyone in sight.

Computing, August 2001

From the Back Cover

"Fear not. This book will help you become an effective and respected team leader... the view from the trenches will help guide you in making your own decisions in the context of your own organization and its values... With Whitehead as your mentor, you can anticipate and diffuse problems. Soon you will be as effective as a team leader as you were as a developer".
-- Shari Lawrence Pfleeger

"This is a book for the real world. Suppose you are the team leader of a software project. You thought you did all the right things at every stage. Yet the project came in three months late and the application crashed continuously when it went live. What could you have done to prevent this? This book gives the answers. Structured round common questions which should occur to every new team leader -- 'How do I earn the respect of my team?', 'How do I draw up a project plan?', it discusses the activities which you need to master".
--Donald Matthews, Project Team Leader, AIT

Gain the confidence to take a leadership role, learn from your experiences and become a better leader of successful software projects!

The position of team leader is becoming increasingly recognized as crucial to the success of any software development project -- but how do you actually do it? This book is written by a practitioner who has faced the most common and difficult issues on a day-to-day basis. It takes the form of questions that you will inevitably find yourself asking, followed by practical answers that you can immediately apply in your own situation. This book gives sound, tried and tested advice on how to overcome problems and offers practical tips and techniques on how to lead other people, make good decisions and get your project out on time.

Skills you will learn:

• motivation and teambuilding
• leading technical people and dealing with problematic team members
• planning and project management
• winning management support
• leading an object-oriented project
• requirements capture and handling changes in requirements
• interviewing and presenting
• effective decision making

0201675269B06182001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (June 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201675269
• ISBN-13: 978-0201675269
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #288,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid book on managing software developers, August 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Leading a Software Development Team: A developer's guide to successfully leading people & projects (Paperback)

"Leading a Software Development Team" is a great introduction to project management, especially for a software developer who is suddenly thrown into the driver's seat. I really liked how this book was organized into problem areas, each cross-referencing related problem sections. Think "design patterns for software managers." Software developers are quirky people and thus quirky employees. This book understands how they work and their motivations.

I felt the brief chapters on UML and object-oriented design patterns were unnecessary and a little out of place. There are plenty of other books on UML and design patterns. Not all of the information in this book is brand new, but it is well organized and lucidly written. This book is a great companion to Steve McConnell's far-less-approachable "Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Advice that will reduce the very difficult to difficult, July 21, 2003

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Leading a Software Development Team: A developer's guide to successfully leading people & projects (Paperback)

While the programmer in me has often railed at the managers of software development, generally with very good reason, but admittedly sometimes for reasons that were less than pure, I do readily admit that it is a very difficult job. Humans tend to have distinct sets of skills, some of which seem to have a fundamental incompatibility. Writers of good software seem to be predisposed to having limited social and managerial skills and in general one needs to be able to understand a great deal about software in order to be able to manage its' creation. Programmers are also known as being "somewhat difficult" to organize, so even the best managers can be challenged by what is oftentimes an unruly bunch of developers.
However, difficult does not mean impossible, I have yet to meet a quality programmer who did not have a "weakness", that properly exploited, will cause them to work intensely and log an enormous amount of keyboard time. Teams are built in many ways, and Whitehead quite properly notes that many (most) successful teams are made of people who respect and rely on each other's skills, but may not personally like each other. Some of the most successful sports teams of all times were made up of players who did not speak to each other outside the bounds of play. Arguing and bickering, as long as it is within clearly defined boundaries, should be considered normal and tolerated. Attempts to dictate that people like each other and engage in silly "teambuilding" exercises more often lead to failure rather than success. Other examples in the book show the same good sense, as Whitehead clearly has experience in making projects work.
The book is split into sections, which are

* The new leader.
* Project management.
* Leading people.
* Requirements capture.
* Stress and conflict management.
* Relationship with management.
* Making decisions.
* Analysis and design.
* Testing and project release.

Under these sections, there are a total of 40 different points, with a header and explanation of some of the rights, wrongs and different shades of gray inherent in the points. While forty is not large enough to cover all possible contingencies, I cannot find a reason to criticize those that were chosen.
Writing good software is hard, and managing hard people is difficult. However, from this book you can find some very sound advice that will improve your chances of managing a project to a successful conclusion.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read, interesting, useful, July 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Leading a Software Development Team: A developer's guide to successfully leading people & projects (Paperback)

I bought this because I am starting to lead a software team, without any training, I just find myself in charge of 3 people. This book helped me see where I'm getting it right and where there are things I can do better. It's quite short and I read about 3 chapters each day on the train in about 15 minutes. I would have liked a little more about recruitement and also about making presentations because these are things I need immediate help with, what's in the book is OK but I would have liked more e.g. list of questions for interviewees. Overall well worth the money.