Software Leadership: A Guide to Successful Software Development [Paperback]

Murray Cantor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201700441 | ISBN-13: 978-0201700442 | Publication Date: October 20, 2001 | Edition: 1

"This book will help you not become a "Pointy Hair Manager." It will give you enough insight into the nature of software, the development process, and the techniques and tools used, so that you can intelligently reason about development and adjust, plan, replan, manage risks, and lead a team to success; not just document and record their failure."
--From the Foreword by Philippe Kruchten, Rational Fellow, Rational Software Canada

Together, a high demand for productive software development teams and a company's call for superior software have made seasoned professionals invaluable assets to software organizations. New managers must quickly become familiar with the key skills required by the needs of the position, and seasoned professionals must learn new methods of team organization to cope with the shorter length of the development cycle. Software Leadership: A Guide to Successful Software Development provides sound, practical guidance on how to be a good manager and how to build a competitive software team. This book is for the manager with little software background, as well as the seasoned software professional.

Based on the author's extensive professional experience, the book is a concise and straightforward overview of what he has found that every competent team leader absolutely has to know and practice. The following topics, which a successful leader must understand, are covered in detail:

• Software quality
• Effective development practices
• Team dynamics
• Appropriate leadership style

This book will show you how to lead your team toward the delivery of timely and cost-effective software, and teach you how to lead a modern software development project or organization.

0201700441B09072001

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"This book will help you not become a 'Pointy Hair Manager.' It will give you enough insight into the nature of software, the development process, and the techniques and tools used, so that you can intelligently reason about development and adjust, plan, replan, manage risks, and lead a team to success; not just document and record their failure."
--From the Foreword by Philippe Kruchten, Rational Fellow, Rational Software Corporation

Together, a high demand for productive software development teams and a company's call for superior software have made seasoned professionals invaluable assets to software organizations. New managers must quickly become familiar with the key skills required by the needs of the position, and seasoned professionals must learn new methods of team organization to cope with the shorter length of the development cycle. Software Leadership: A Guide to Successful Software Development provides sound, practical guidance on how to be a good manager and how to build a competitive software team. This book is for the manager with little software background, as well as the seasoned software professional.

Based on the author's extensive professional experience, the book is a concise and straightforward overview of what he has found that every competent team leader absolutely has to know and practice. The following topics, which a successful leader must understand, are covered in detail:

• Software quality
• Effective development practices
• Team dynamics
• Appropriate leadership style

This book will show you how to lead your team toward the delivery of timely and cost-effective software, and teach you how to lead a modern software development project or organization.

0201700441B10052001

About the Author

Murray Cantor, formerly a software manager at IBM and TASC, is now principal consultant at Rational Software Corporation, where he provides project management consulting services to Rational's customers. He is author of Object-Oriented Project Management with UML, and writes a monthly column on Software Management in The IT Project Leader. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (October 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201700441
• ISBN-13: 978-0201700442
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,409,307 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks Murray for Emphasizing Leadership., January 8, 2002

By 

M. Mott "Elko Mike" (Elko, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Software Leadership: A Guide to Successful Software Development (Paperback)

Murray Cantor's book discusses leadership, which is an important, though neglected, area of software development. In the introduction Murray Cantor makes it clear this isn't a 'how to' book about software development -- though he writes well on this here -- but this book is about *leading* a software development process. Again and again Murray reminds us that developing software is a team effort, and that only as an effective team will we succeed.
Murray drives this point home forcefully in chapter 3 when he reminds the reader that software projects are non-linear. He observes, correctly, that "Common sense flows from a shared view of how the world works." On the next page he reinfoces this with his tip that our new common sense approach to development is about leadership. From this point on, Murray illustrates the way in which to apply the team concepts to the process of building software.
If the reader is current with the literature as it pertains to development methods, then the technology in the book will not be new. Nevertheless, the lessons pertaining to team building are as profound as they are necessary. Those using the book as an introduction to development methodology will have the treat of learning this from one of the best, and as a bonus receive his sound advice regarding leadership.
Murray has written a book that should be on the shelf of any manager, er leader, associated with the development of software products. This is definitely a "two-thumbs-up" book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wisdom and Experience, August 1, 2003

By 

Shao "Shao" (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Software Leadership: A Guide to Successful Software Development (Paperback)

Successful software projects need to be organized and managed opposite to successful companies, because of the need for creativity. This book points out the differences in crystal clarity, with very specific suggestions on what to do at each stage of moving software projects forward. Of particular interest are shortcomings of the other approaches such as waterfall, hands-off, and rapid prototyping. Details on how to use RUP (Rational Unified Process) with UML examples are provided as well.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Planning and limited hard work are the keys to success, December 20, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Software Leadership: A Guide to Successful Software Development (Paperback)

We all suffer from a case of TDNAH (That Does Not Apply Here), but workers in information technology seem to be the pathological case. Despite years of repeated admonitions that the only way to build successful software projects is to have a specific plan and that extensive overtime is counterproductive, many still do not listen. While most of the dot-com failures were bad ideas, there were many good ideas that were poorly planned and organized. The hours that most of the employees worked were more than what one would expect from a slave, as that seemed to be the only strategy for success that many could come up with.
Once you finally admit that you are not an exceptional member of the business section of the human race, it follows that you should look for someone with accumulated wisdom regarding how to successfully manage software projects. Cracking this book open is a good place to start, provided that quality software is truly your goal. While the advice in the book is good, it is of little use for someone more interested in exercising power and fueling their ego. This book is about being a true leader that people would listen to and follow even when choices are available. Management is about motivating people with a feather duster rather than a bullwhip and this book contains a detailed plan for the creation of competent managers who can lead the development of quality software.
Perhaps we are finally at the point where the popularity of the Dilbert cartoon will be due more to the humor rather than the accurate way it describes the work environment. Wherever we are in that trend, this is one book that is helping the push in that direction.