Software Development Books

Practical Unit Testing with TestNG and Mockito

sdbooks — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:40:55 +0000

According to the author, this book is aimed at developers who want to produce high-quality, maintainable unit tests. It is intended especially for those who would like to start unit testing their code, but are unsure about how to get started and what to focus on. Despite the Java/TestNG/Mockito orientation that the title might suggest, the book contains a high percentage of general unit testing knowledge that can be applied (mostly) independently of the language and tools that you are using. The book discusses general topics of unit testing and mocking, ...

Refactoring Ruby Edition

sdbooks — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:40:17 +0000

Drawing on the original Refactoring book that used Java as the programming language for examples, this new edition explains how to apply refactoring techniques in a Ruby context, adding some refactoring that are specific to this language. Instead of trying to give a definition of refactoring, the book begins with a long example of practicing refactoring. The second chapter explains the who, why and when of refactoring. The third chapter is dedicated to “smells”, hints in code that should tell you it need to be refactored. The following chapter discusses the ...

Essential Skills for the Agile Developer

sdbooks — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:26:21 +0000

At a time where the Agile approach is often limited to the practice of Scrum, it is good to see a book dedicated to the programming side of Agile. The book wants to present the “trim tabs of software development”. Trim tabs are structures on airplanes and ships that reduce the amount of energy needed to control the flaps on an airplane or the rudder of a ship. The first part of the book is focused on coding and testing and the second part discusses how to handle the software ...

Just Enough Software Architecture

sdbooks — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:05:32 +0000

Is there a middle way between the traditional Big Architecture Upfront and the Natural Architecture Emergence proposed by some Agile developers? This is the goal of this book that tries to provide guidelines and models on how to include just enough architecture in your software development activities. George Fairbanks proposes to use the risks faced by the project as the main criteria for this approach. The first part of the book is mainly focused on presenting the risk driven model. The goal is to answer two questions: how much software ...

Specification by Example

sdbooks — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:27:49 +0000

Specification by Example is a set of process patterns that facilitate change in software products to ensure the right product is delivered effectively. This book is based on the research of 30 teams that implemented 50 projects. The first part of the book introduces the Specification by Example concept… with examples, showing what are the benefits of this approach. The second part presents the key process patterns. The final part of the book contains six case studies that explain how organizations changed their specification process according to their context and ...

Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development

sdbooks — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:35:22 +0000

I had already very much like the first book written by the same authors “Scaling Lean & Agile Development – Thinking and Organisational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum” published in 2009. The risk when you have high expectations is being disappointed. It wasn’t the case with this book that is like the first one providing pragmatic advice on how to adopt an agile and lean approach. Despite the density of its content, the book is easy to read. Margin notes allow the reader to navigate to related content and end of ...

Lean Integration

sdbooks — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:34:39 +0000

This book is the sequel of a first book titled “Integration Competency Center: An Implementation Methodology” and is aimed at taking it “to the next level by adding more specific best practices and a rich collection of case studies”. The book is divided in three parts. The first part provides an overview of Lean integration. The second part introduces the seven Lean integration principles and the last part discusses lean integration competency areas. Despite being sometimes plagued with “Powerpoint” jargon as in the recommendation that senior executives read the book to ...

Documenting Software Architectures

sdbooks — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:13:01 +0000

The fist thing that I liked about this book on documenting software architectures is that the authors know how to write. It is both easy to read and well structured. The book provides a reading guide for the different categories of readers (architect, novice and stakeholders). There are also many pointers and quotes in the margins that allow you or your brain to navigate further from the current content. The book starts by explaining the concepts of architecture views and styles. A second part discusses in a more detailed fashion the ...

Leadership, Teamwork, and Trust

sdbooks — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:13:25 +0000

The late Watts S. Humphrey has been an important personality of the software development world. He led the development of the Software Capability Maturity Model (CMMI), an internationally recognized standard in the field of software process improvement. The title of his last book is a little bit misleading as it is mainly focused on the Team Software Process (TSP) than presenting a broader perspective on software development management or leadership. If you are your interested in these topics, you should rather read Humphrey’s “Reflections on Management“. The goal of the Team ...

Agile Game Development with Scrum

sdbooks — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:20:43 +0000

Drawing from his own experience as developer and CTO in the game development industry, Keith Clinton has written a book that provides both an overall vision of the Agile and Scrum approaches combined with a detailed practice of these principles in the specific context of game software development. It gives therefore also a good introduction to the software practices of the gaming industry. I noticed for instance that the customer – outsourcer relationships are not very different from the relationships between game production companies and external developers. The book is well ...