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Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules 1st Edition
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Corporate and commercial software-development teams all want solutions for one important problem―how to get their high-pressure development schedules under control. In RAPID DEVELOPMENT, author Steve McConnell addresses that concern head-on with overall strategies, specific best practices, and valuable tips that help shrink and control development schedules and keep projects moving. Inside, you’ll find:
- A rapid-development strategy that can be applied to any project and the best practices to make that strategy work
- Candid discussions of great and not-so-great rapid-development practices―estimation, prototyping, forced overtime, motivation, teamwork, rapid-development languages, risk management, and many others
- A list of classic mistakes to avoid for rapid-development projects, including creeping requirements, shortchanged quality, and silver-bullet syndrome
- Case studies that vividly illustrate what can go wrong, what can go right, and how to tell which direction your project is going
- RAPID DEVELOPMENT is the real-world guide to more efficient applications development.
- ISBN-109781556159008
- ISBN-13978-1556159008
- Edition1st
- PublisherMicrosoft Press
- Publication date
1996
July 2
- Part of series
- Language
EN
English
- Dimensions
7.3 x 1.4 x 8.9
inches
- Length
672
Pages
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The nine page section entitled "Classic Mistakes Enumerated" is alone worth the price of admission and should be required reading for all developers, leads, and managers. Here are some types of the 36 classic mistakes that McConnell describes in detail:
- People Related Mistakes
- Heroics
- Adding people to a late project
- Politics placed over substance (etc.)
- Process Related Mistakes
- Abandonment of planning under pressure
- Planning to catch up later
- "Code-like-hell" programming (etc.)
- Technology Related Mistakes
- Silver-Bullet syndrome
- Overestimating savings from new tools or methods
- Switching tools in the middle of a project (etc.)
I suspect that if you've ever been involved in software development, you winced after reading each of these nine points. And you will learn a great deal from the remaining 640 pages about concrete solutions.
My only substantive gripe: cheesy Powerpoint graphics. Nonetheless, this book is Very Highly Recommended.
About the Author
Steve McConnell is recognised as one of the premier authors and voices in the development community. He is Chief Software Engineer of Construx Software and was the lead developer of Construx Estimate and of SPC Estimate Professional, winner of Software Development magazine's Productivity Award. He is the author of several books, including Code Complete and Rapid Development, both honored with Software Development magazine's Jolt Award.
Product details
- ASIN : 1556159005
- Publisher : Microsoft Press; 1st edition (July 2, 1996)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 672 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781556159008
- ISBN-13 : 978-1556159008
- Item Weight : 2.82 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.3 x 1.4 x 8.9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #699,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #58 in Desktop Database Books
- #149 in Business Intelligence Tools
- #762 in Software Development (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Steve McConnell is an award-winning, best selling CEO and author. His newest book is "More Effective Agile: A Roadmap for Software Leaders." His first book, "Code Complete", has been recognized as the best-selling, best-reviewed software development book of all time. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than one million copies worldwide.
Steve is passionate about increasing software organizational performance by improving the skills of individuals and teams. Steve is founder and CEO at Construx Software, which provides training, consulting, coaching and free resources focused on more effective software development practices. Check it out at construx.com.
Steve's newest book, More Effective Agile, was published in August 2019. Check out resources related to Steve's new book at moreeffectiveagile.com.
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made me pinpoint exactly all the faults those projects had. The
good thing about this book is that its complete. Some books cover
some areas and some others, but this covers all. For eg., if you
just read the first few chapters and decided to apply techniques
learnt to your project, you might not apply them correctly as you
you didn't read the whole book to get a complete picture of
rapid development.
This books is good for people working in startups. Developers
should also read this book so that they can help avoid mistakes
of managers/tech.leads in a fast-paced environment where things
can get easily missed.
Overall it was a nice easy read, but beware that it won't be very applicable early in your career.
It had a lot of meat to the book.
I would recommend Team Lead's read this to give you some extra ideas about managing your development team.
Top reviews from other countries
Man sollte ich von dem Titel nicht irreführen lassen: Hier geht es mitnichten nur um schnelle Softwareentwicklung. Ich bin mit dem Autor einer Meinung -- nämlich, dass diese nur möglich ist, wenn man zuvor die allgemeinen Grundlagen effizienter Softwareentwicklung beherrscht. Und diese beschreibt McConnell im ersten und im zweiten Abschnitt einfach hervorragend: umfassend, fundiert und einleuchtend. Mir gefällt sehr, dass er die jeweiligen Praktiken nie als Wunderwaffe preist, sondern immer sehr genau auf die spezifischen Voraussetzungen, Begrenzungen und Risiken eingeht, in den meisten Fällen auch durch Zahlen und Ergebnisse seriöser Untersuchungen belegt. Dadurch gewinnt man ein gutes Verständnis dafür, ob und wann man die jeweilige Methode überhaupt anwenden kann, und welchen Preis man dafür möglicherweise zahlen muss.
Der dritte Teil besteht aus einem kurzen Lexikon der wichtigsten "Best Practices" für schnelle Softwareentwicklung. Jeder Begriff wird definiert, und auch hier werden wieder Voraussetzungen und Risiken sowie Tipps zur Umsetzung angegeben. Zwar wiederholt sich auf den 650 Seiten manches, andererseits ist dies bei der Nichtlinearität des Themas eh nicht zu vermeiden (und Wiederholung ist eh gut fürs Einprägen!). Sehr gelungen die beiden großen Tabellen zu Beginn des dritten Teils. Die erste eine kategorisiert alle im Buch erwähnten Praktiken (in "Fundamental", "Best Philosophy", "Best Practice" und "Not a Best Practice") und verweist auf die jeweiligen Kapitel. Die zweite stellt eine Übersicht über die wichtigsten Auswirkungen aller der im Buch erwähnten Best Practices zusammen und ist ein unschätzbarer Startpunkt, um zu Beginn eines Projektes potenziell geeignete Praktiken zu identifizieren -- je nachdem, ob man präzise Terminierung oder flexible Anforderungen wünscht, kompetente Entwickler hat usw.
Ebenfalls absolut beispielhaft ist die Strukturierung und Verlinkung der Inhalte. Wo immer es geht, verweist McConnell auf Querbezüge zum Thema und natürlich weiterführende Literatur. Das verstärkt nur die Tauglichkeit des Buches als Nachschlagewerk zum täglichen Gebrauch, der einem schnell einen Überblick und jeweils interessante weiterführende Punkte verschafft.
Manch einer wird kritisieren, dass das Buch doch absolut veraltet sein dürfte, da fehlen Scrum, XP oder Entwurfsmuster ganz, und das ist tatsächlich ein Manko. Aber was die Grundlagen der Softwareentwicklung angeht, ist dieses Buch genauso aktuell wie eh und je. Und es versetzt einen in die Lage, neuere Praktiken zu analysieren und hinsichtlich ihrer Anwendbarkeit auf spezifische Projekte einzuschätzen.
FAZIT: Jeder, der einen professionellen Ansatz zur Softwareentwicklung verfolgt, wird von diesem Buch profitieren. Für technische Leiter und Manager von Softwareprojekten ist dieses Buch meines Erachtens ein absolutes Muss, und da übertreibe ich nicht. Für mich jedenfalls waren die lächerlichen 2 Euronen, die ich für dieses Buch gebraucht hier berappt habe, die profitabelste Investition aller Zeiten. Meine Empfehlung lautet somit einfach: Kaufen, studieren, ins firmeneigene Bücherregal und zumindest die ersten beiden Teile allen Beteiligten als Pflichtlektüre verschreiben.
PS. Nein, ich erhalte genauso kein Geld oder sonstige Vergünstigungen von Herrn McConnell oder Microsoft Press für diese Rezension wie wohl die anderen 48 von 54 Rezensenten hier, die das Buch mit 5 Sternen wärmstens empfehlen :)
Very good read.
Any one, or any IT department, thinking about jumping on the agile bandwagon should first read this book.
The loss of a star is only because it deserves a more up to date edition.
Thanks Amazon.ca









