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Decline And Fall Of The American Programmer

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Decline And Fall Of The American Programmer (Textbook Binding)

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3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Paperback Available from these sellers. Published June 15, 1993	Paperback	--	$4.69	$0.01
Textbook Binding Available from these sellers. Published March 12, 1992 Textbook Binding: A sturdier hardcover binding suited to being open longer and used more frequently.	Textbook Binding	--	$1.45	$0.01
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

According to the author, many veteran programmers in the U.S. are seeing their jobs being outsourced to other countries; and unless things change, this situation can only worsen. Here, Yourdan shows how U.S. software organizations can survive and become world-class if they exploit the key software technologies of the 1990s. "View this book as a Tom Peters-style search for excellence in the software world. Be prepared to be angered. Be prepared to be confronted. Be prepared to change."--Raymond Cote, Byte Magazine, July 1992. 6 x 9.

From the Publisher

All over the world, software development organizations are grappling with staggering problems of productivity and quality. But while most organizations see the current situation as a problem, a few--the "world- class" software organizations--see it as an opportunity, and have publicly commited to bringing about ten-fold improvements by the mid-1990s.

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Product Details

Textbook Binding: 320 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (March 13, 1992)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0132036703
ISBN-13: 978-0132036702
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds

Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,437,590 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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Customer Reviews

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3.1 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Plausible possibility. Feeble solutions., August 19, 2001

By	Peter Soucy (Plymouth, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Decline and Fall of the American Programmer (Paperback)

I never bought the book but read it in one sitting at a bookstore a few years ago. I had every intention of buying the book but when I casually started viewing it, I could not put it down. By the time I was ready to make a purchase, I already read the book. (Sorry, Ed). The author is no stranger to controversy and I must admit the book at the time provoked everything from fear and anger to denial in me regarding my chosen profession. Although it's publication predates the emergence of the Internet and the vast changes that have taken place since then, industry guru Ed Yourdon gives a rather plausible thesis as to why software development could move overseas. There is no question that software engineering in India has developed a worlwide reputation for high quality and only now, in the last 3 years has the realization of his prophecy accelerated. However, the main impetus behind this trend has been to take advantage of the cheaper labor pool. It is for this reason I find the author's proposed solutions to be feeble. Increased use of CASE tools, object-oriented methods, and iterative development may improve the quality of American software but doesn't remotely address the enormous salary differential between say, Indian programmers and their American counterparts. Quality and innovation can only go so far and these practices are now already standard and widespread throught the industry.

That said, even the book's thesis is not without it's problems. The author does not seem to take into account that the workforce in the American software industry is much more diverse than it was 10 or 15 years ago, making the situation more complicated than the stereotypical lazy white guys competing against the rest of the world. Nearly a quarter of my colleagues are from India and there's no reason to suspect they're any less smarter than professionals in Bangalore. Also, the focus of the book seems to be on writing code. If that was all there was to developing and supporting information systems, I'd be inclined to agree with the author 100%. As it happens, the most complicated aspects of system development isn't always writing the code or even design, but communication involving everything from requirements analysis to coordination of development for various parts of the system encompassing database changes as well as client and middleware components. This is not to say it would be impossible to coordinate that with people on the other side of the world but difficult. It IS possible and has been tried but the results have been mixed. If my employer were to try this, they may very well save on programmer costs only to see their savings eaten up by new costs in communication infrastructure, endless business trips, more meetings...

The bottom line: Software development will continue to be delegated to oversees firms and will have a profound effect on some job prospects here and on the nature of the work itself, but the American programmer is far from becoming an endangered species.

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A 'must read ', but for historical reasons only, November 2, 2003

By	Celia Redmore "Celia Redmore" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Decline and Fall of the American Programmer (Paperback)

Five years after reading this book when it was first published, I bought a secondhand copy (as well as a copy of Rise and Resurrection) to take another look. Obviously, the American Programmer is in decline, so Ed Yourdan got that right. The question is whether the book has anything important to say to us today.

This is a book about case tools. Anybody remember them? Yourdan's argument was that the willingness of Indian programmers to use case tools would enable them to produce good, cheap software at a fraction of the cost of that generated by American 'cowboys'. His strong advice for programmers in the US was to start using mechanistic methods, so that they could also start churning out code like cookies in a cookie factory.

Most probably, Decline and Fall will remain an interesting book for students of computer science to read for many years into the future - not for what it got right, but for what it got wrong. Common wisdom today (which may become foolishness tomorrow) is that American Programmers can't hope to compete against people living in poor nations by trying to undercut them on cost, but only by using their native creativity and willingness to explore new frontiers to create truly new products.

In other words, Yourdan correctly forsaw the future, but badly misjudged the solution.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A useful book, but take with a pinch of salt, August 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Decline and Fall of the American Programmer (Paperback)

Firstly, this is a pretty good read as computer books go. It contains a lot of good information in an easily digestible fashion.

It's a good book to learn about a range of contemporary (ish) issues in IT - software processes, CASE tools, QA, metrics reuse etc etc. Short chapters and Yourdon's chatty style help greatly. The chapter on recommended reading has some great pointers too.

The negatives are that it's pretty superficial at times and reads very much like a consultant / salesman selling his wares rather than someone who actually runs projects for a living. In particular, the chapter on software methodologies seemed very simplistic to me (and I have had experience of many, believe me!)

Still, all in all I'd recommend this to any IT profesional who feels he/she is only exposed to a narrow range of software tools & methods and wants to know more about what else is out there.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Still valid after nearly two decades
I first read this book shortly after it was published and at the time, thought Yourdon was unduly pessimistic about the long-term fate of the American programmer working class... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Charles Ashbacher

3.0 out of 5 stars Does this Book Belong in the Humor Section?
This review is more a review of a review than a review of the book which is accurate in predicting the future but enchanted with vacous methodlogies and associated retooling. Read more

Published on December 23, 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book but a little scary
This is a wonderful and interesting book. Its a little scary with many cries of the sky is falling but seeing the current cut down in IT staffing levels and the number of projects... Read more

Published on July 12, 2003 by Eric P. Medlock

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad content, worse editing
This book is virtually unreadable. While reading along, you may get the beginning of one sentence, and the end of another. Don't waste your money on this book.

Published on May 10, 2001 by John Johnson

1.0 out of 5 stars This book belongs in Humor
This book claims that nearly all American Programmers would be standing in unemployment lines in 1999. Please note that everything that Yourdon does is *satire* - not real! Read more

Published on January 7, 2000 by Sam

1.0 out of 5 stars Free Upgrade?
If the author followed his own guidelines for quality management, he would offer every owner of this book a free upgrade to "Resurrection of the American Programmer",... Read more

Published on December 20, 1999 by Peter Norvig

1.0 out of 5 stars People STILL Buy This Thing???
HAHAHAHA!!! Ed Yourdon's classic 'the American software industry is going to hell in a handcart any second now, cuz Ed sez so' tome. Read more

Published on April 14, 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous insight into the software industry
I first read this book about five years ago, and loved it. Anyone in the software industry who sees being a software engineer as just "coding" should read this book... Read more

Published on July 8, 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book full of insight
I read this book as a grad student is I.S. Management. Provides wonderful insight into how to and how not to manage IS. Chapter 8 is a must for any and all developers. Read more

Published on August 28, 1997

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for all people in the software industry
Regardless of the title, this book is actually about what you can do to become a world-class organization. Read more

Published on April 21, 1997

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