Customer Reviews

Rise & Resurrection of the American Programmer [Paperback] by Edward Yourdon

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While Yourdon's "Death March" wasn't another "Mythical Man-Month" by any measure, "Rise" is yet in another (much lower) class. Does Yourdon want to become a true industry pundit? Ed, your style is too clear for that; and you're writing in harback format, which doesn't blissfully disappear like all these magazines.

There are many valuable insights: the section on best practices, for example. The good thing is that Yourdon doesn't just talk about them: he lists a few. "User Manual as Specification" is so simple, so obviously good... why have we done anything else ever? "Good-enough software" is valuable as well, not because you're not doing that already, but because the key is making it a fully conscious and accepted process.

And then there are some chapters that I'd rather not talk about; the one about Java, for example. The author obviously got carried away. In hindsight, this is easy to say, but still: it lacked realism, even if Microsoft hadn't tried foiling Sun's plans since day 1.

Overall: read Yourdon's other books, they're worthier of your money. And if you haven't the classics like "MMM" (Brooks), go there first.

I bought this book march 2000, Read it, thought it was OK , left it on my shelf. 5 Years later I was going to discard it from my collection. opened it up and was surprised at the wealth of information in it and how closely it matches my own experience and philospohy. It is a mine of good information. Not a book to read front to back but to explore, it reads better than most web and magazine articles. If you can get one on the used market its worth 50cents of anyones money. i would say its time for a revised edition.

It gives a lot of guidelines about how to improve projects and human management (American and European point of view), developer behaviors, and so on. I found chapters concerning object technology, analysis and design very realistics, pinpointing advantages, drawbacks, and advice. Very good and clear Java's strategic position overview as programming language, web-based language ( client and server ), and so on. Unfortunately, I expected more details about Inernet technology ( e-commerce, ethic, ...). A very good book to read as a novel.

Yourdon writes a book (Decline and Fall of the American Programmer) predicting doom and gloom, and when he's proved wrong, does he offer a free refund? Or at least apologize? No, he asks his readers to invest more money to learn why the previous book was all wrong. No thanks for me.

There a a few good chapters in this book, particularly the one on "Best Practices", but overall this is pretty shabby stuff.

Yourdon's problem is that in his "Decline & Fall of the American Programmer", he got it all wrong, so he lacks credibility, but for most of the book he hasn't got any hard evidence to offer to support his new thesis. A lot of what he presents as revelation (e.g. "good-enough software" or cultural problems limiting the effectiveness of Indian software houses) will strike many IT professionals as glaringly obvious.

In 1992, Ed Yourdon nearly had me convinced that code from Bangalore (India) was about to be as dominant as VCR's from Tokyo. Just a few years later, he feels better, and so do I.

What changed? Many things. Today, in the consumer software market, we've learned to accept "Good Enough" Software. "Good Enough" Software depends on a considered tradeoff among schedule (delivery date), functionality (feature richness), and quality (absence of defects). Quality no longer means flawlessness, except in nuclear reactors and pacemakers. This tradeoff is well-suited to the "cowboy" culture that has long been the bane of American programming - and perhaps less suited to top-down, authoritarian cultures. Hence the balance shifts back to our own shores.

Yourdon makes several other equally thought-provoking points about the brightening future for American software professionals. Visit his Website at (http://www.acm.org/~yourdon/) for an update on his philosophy, and then go and get this book!

Although I haven't yet finished this book I can't help but feel that he was closer to the mark with his first book. In the last three years many foreign countries have been ramping up the amount of software development they do for American (and European) clients. Local software developers cannot compete on cost, so they must compete either on innovation or quality. They're not making it on quality and innovations can only take you so far.

I have read this book three years ago when I was a programming consultant. It is amazing to see the parallel between Yourdon's thoughts in the book and the current Software Engineering Institute CMM methodology. It is as if the whole new methodology was based on this book!

This book definitely reads better than SEI's documentation. You can finish the book in a couple of days and retain the mahority of the ideas presented.

If you are a programming supervisor, IT manager, or an enthusiastic software engineer, this book is fun, captivating, and very motivational.

I just graduated with a degree in History, but have been entertaining the idea of getting involved in computers in some fashion. The only problem is that I have no background at all and have little Idea where to start. I picked up Rise and Resurrection hoping to get some sort of direction.

Yourdon's book is wonderfully written and very understandable. He does a great job of explaining the opportunities available in the computer world, and presents his take on burgeoning technologies and tools.

I would recommend this book to anyone in the computer field, interested in getting into the computer field, or simply with an interest in computers.

I had to buy this for my CASE tool class. First of all, Yourdon's reliance on "models" to illustate his concepts is ridiculous. The Maturity model, the SEI model...its all useless.

If people in the IT industry tried to follow these models, they would end up "dead and destroyed."

This book is boring, as well. It is his attempt at redeeming himself after his first book.

I could go on and on...