The ThoughtWorks Anthology: Essays on Software Technology and Innovation (Pragmatic Programmers) (Paperback)

by ThoughtWorks Inc. (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
ThoughtWorks is a well-known global consulting firm; ThoughtWorkers are leaders in areas of design, architecture, SOA, testing, and agile methodologies. This collection of essays brings together contributions from well-known ThoughtWorkers such as Martin Fowler, along with other authors you may not know yet. While ThoughtWorks is perhaps best known for their work in the Agile community, this anthology confronts issues throughout the software development life cycle. From technology issues that transcend methodology, to issues of realizing business value from applications, you'll find it here.

About the Author
ThoughtWorks is a well-known global consulting firm; ThoughtWorkers are leaders in areas of design, architecture, SOA, testing, and agile methodologies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf; illustrated edition edition (March 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193435614X
• ISBN-13: 978-1934356142
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #488,190 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good way to reflect on your profession, with a minor caveat..., May 26, 2008

By	Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I feel that every techie should take a step back once in a while and reflect on their profession. The ThoughtWorks Anthology: Essays on Software Technology and Innovation by ThoughtWorks, Inc. is one of those books that helps lead you down that path. While there are some good reads in here, the "level of resonance" will likely depend on your language of choice and development methodology...

Contents:
Solving the Business Software "Last Mile" by Rog Singham and Michael Robinson
One Lair and Twenty Ruby DSLs by Martin Fowler
The Lush Landscape of Languages by Rebecca J. Parsons
Polyglot Programming by Neal Ford
Object Calistentics by Jeff Bay
What Is an Iteration Manager Anyway? by Tiffany Lentz
Project Vital Signs by Stelios Pantazopoulos
Consumer-Driven Contracts: A Service Evolution Pattern by Ian Robinson
Domain Annotations by Erik Doernenburg
Refactoring Ant Build Files by Julian Simpson
Single-Click Software Release by Dave Farley
Agile vs. Waterfall Testing for Enterprise Web Apps by Kristan Vingrys
Pragmatic Performance Testing by James Bull

Based on the type of work that ThoughtWorks does and their development methodology, you'll understand and relate a lot more to the material if you're into things like agile development, Ruby, Ant, and other various open source software offerings. Granted, the argument could be made that *everyone* should be using those things, but the reality is that there are plenty of developers who don't or can't for various reasons. But once you get past that point, there's plenty of material here that should get you to think a bit... Lush Languages does a great job in turning the Java vs Ruby argument into one where you're considering multiple language options based on the problem domain. Polyglot Programming is also very insightful, as it addresses the use of multiple languages within a single project so that you can get the best of all possible worlds. If they are all running under the same JVM, there's few reasons not to take advantage of the various strengths. I also enjoyed the Object Calisthenics entry, as the exercises force you to rethink program design without resorting to techniques that can get out of control very quickly. Many of the other chapters are a bit more focused on topics that might or might not work for you if you're not already using that software/approach. You can always dig out one or two items that are not specific to the tool (as in development tool programming should fall under the same level of control and planning as production code), but you have to work a bit harder to get there.

If you're into the particular tools outlined here, by all means get the book and read it. If you're not at that spot for whatever reason, it's still worth reading. Just be prepared to work a little harder and/or realize that some of the chapters just won't do much for you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable & Thoughtful Read, June 2, 2008

By	J. Ambrose Little "Microsoft MVP; INETA Speak... (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One nice thing about collections of short pieces is that you can work your way through them in any order and only read ones that look interesting without worrying about missing crucial information. That's how I read this book, and I enjoyed most of the selections I read. I thought that the one on OO coding was great as it had good concrete exercises to help folks go down that road.

Recommended.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great stuff, June 16, 2008

By	Vincent Elschot (Amsterdam, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This book is packed with realworld knowledge and experience, written by people who have more than earned their title of expert. It covers many aspects of the software development world and adresses issues that you have most likely run into at some point, or are about to run into. Being able read how the experts deal with these things is very interesting indeed, it can either give you new ideas to better handle the issues, or it can be a confidence boost to see that the experts do things the same way as you.

For me, the part about the Iteration Manager and the performance testing were particularly interesting because I've had quite a few problems with this in the past.

Keep it up Thoughtworks!