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The Career Programmer
What's with the title? The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World is a gem of wisdom in a sea of dry, academic books on the software development process. It seems to mix equal parts of any software process book, Dilbert, and Sun Tzu's The Art of War. The development "process" that most developers find themselves enduring today isn't too dissimilar from the "process" that developers have endured for the life of our industry. Management specifies deadlines before they specify requirements, and frown when programmers start designing instead of immediately typing. There are a lot of things wrong with this, but the problem persists.
For this problem, there is at last a real answer. Duncan, a developer himself, brings the wisdom he's gathered during the course of his career to bear on the problem. Surprisingly, he succeeds. With exquisite humor and wry wit he prescribes remedies for the variety of ailments that beset the software development process. The Career Programmer helps software developers in the areas where they are often weakest, from dealing with the politics of an organization, providing estimates that are real, and coping with the realities of management driven timelines. In short, all of the things you never learn in any school except the school of hard knocks. If you want to avoid the endless death march, have a life outside your job, and gain credibility by delivering your software on time and under budget, this book is for you. This book is intended for software developers of all skill and experience levels, no matter which language or operating system they might use.
The Career Programmer differs from most books on the development process in several ways. First, and most importantly, it is a pragmatic book. There are no pretensions to developing the "one, true process" that is better than all of the rest. It concentrates on strategies that work. Different environments require different strategies, and this book doesn't ignore the impact of office politics on the development process. Many developers already know how to develop software in a perfect world, but few are allowed to gather requirements in sufficient detail, take adequate time for design, develop test plans or any of the other important aspects of development. There are a variety of reasons for this, and this book covers them well.
Second, this book provides much-needed balance to books that focus only on the development process, by reminding the reader why the company they work for is in business. Obviously, it's not to let you play with the latest cool tools, despite the attitudes of many developers I've known. Learning to appreciate what motivates the managers and executives at your company is vitally important if you want to succeed. They pay the bills, and you work for them. That makes them important, even if they can't code a bit. Last, succeeding in spite of your boss sometimes requires you to fly under the corporate radar to be successful. Like any good guerilla, you do your best work when you aren't noticed.
What's in the book? The first section of the book, "Software Development in an Imperfect World," introduces the reader to the realities of the corporate world. For someone just out of college, this section is bound to be a rude awakening. They probably didn't understand why Dilbert is so funny, either. However, there is a lot of information in this section that will be useful for veteran developers, especially those who feel that they shouldn't have to "play politics." Playing the political game doesn't have to mean you stab people in the back, but it sure helps if you don't want to be on the receiving end. This section lays out the issues and problems that are dealt with on a daily basis in many companies. If that sounds depressing, never fear, help is on the way.
The second section of the book, "Guerilla Tactics for Front Line Programmers," examines the development process, step-by-step over the life of a project, and provides useful, practical information on how to succeed in spite of the hurdles placed in your path. The reader is guided through requirements gathering, design, estimation, development and testing with an eye toward fixing the perceptions management often has about the development process. If you can convince the people you work for that it is in their best interest to let you gather requirements, design and test, in addition to writing code, you have achieved a great deal.
The best parts of this book are the chapters "Effective Design Under Fire," and "Managing Your Management." Again, both are practical approaches to real problems. "Effective Design Under Fire" alone is worth the price of the book. This is a tremendously pragmatic approach to the problem of limited time for design. I wish every developer I knew understood the concepts here. Frankly, the approach used in the book can make you look like a guru, both to your coworkers, and to your boss. Simply put, it works. "Managing Your Management" is also very valuable, with an emphasis on learning to speak the language of the folks you work for. Sometimes a good guerilla must blend in.
The Summary Something different than the run-of-the-mill development process book, The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World will allow you to gain control of your software projects. It provides pragmatic, useful information that will allow you to push your organization toward successfully delivering software on time. Even junior programmers can affect the development process when they follow the guidelines in this book. Chris Duncan's humorous writing style makes this a very enjoyable read.
Table of Contents
- Software Development in an Imperfect World
- Welcome to Corporate America
- Business Is War. Meet the Enemy.
- Good Coding Skills Are Not Enough
- Guerilla Tactics for Front Line Programmers
- Preventing Arbitrary Deadlines
- Getting Your Requirements Etched in Stone
- Effective Design Under Fire
- Practical Estimating Techniques
- Fighting for Quality Assurance
- Keeping the Project Under Control
- Managing Your Management
- Corporate Self-Defense
- Controlling Your Destiny
You can purchase The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
You're being naive. I don't work for a non-profit, but it's close: a contractor to the EPA. My wife works for a non-profit org, though, and our experiences are the same (Both environmentally-leaning). After a while, you realize that people that work in the organization are really just working at a job.
For example, I remember listening to a conversation with one guy about the idiotic tax-exemption of improbably large SUVs. One guy was dead-set against it, and one guy said it wasn't such a bad thing. Fine. Conversation over. Then, while leaving work, the guy who was red in the face about what a bad idea it was because it would encourage more SUVs got into his...BMW SUV!
I asked him about it later, and he said it was his friend's, and he was just driving it around to keep the engine lubed while his friend was in Europe for the summer. Why was it necessary to drive it to work everyday to keep the engine oil out of the pan? I didn't ask, but I wish I had.
I guess I'm way too cynical, but I think people start out one way, but in the end, the job is just a job.
I will also say that working for small companies is no better and no worse than working for large ones. I've found that it can be hard to overcome the inertia in small companies unless you have some backing. Our backups where I work now haven't worked in over a month, and I'm still having to fight to fix it, because the guy in charge of the backups has been here for 9 years, and I've been here for three months. The management just believes in him, even though he's a moron.
Ny-Quil is the nectar of gods. Barely enough time to get from medicine cabinet to bed. Deep, restful sleep and a dry nose in the morning to boot.