Book picks similar to
Software Process Design: Out Of The Tar Pit by Jacqueline Holdsworth


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Implementing Domain-Driven Design


Vaughn Vernon - 2013
    Vaughn Vernon couples guided approaches to implementation with modern architectures, highlighting the importance and value of focusing on the business domain while balancing technical considerations.Building on Eric Evans’ seminal book, Domain-Driven Design, the author presents practical DDD techniques through examples from familiar domains. Each principle is backed up by realistic Java examples–all applicable to C# developers–and all content is tied together by a single case study: the delivery of a large-scale Scrum-based SaaS system for a multitenant environment.The author takes you far beyond “DDD-lite” approaches that embrace DDD solely as a technical toolset, and shows you how to fully leverage DDD’s “strategic design patterns” using Bounded Context, Context Maps, and the Ubiquitous Language. Using these techniques and examples, you can reduce time to market and improve quality, as you build software that is more flexible, more scalable, and more tightly aligned to business goals.

Pretotype It


Alberto Savoia - 2011
    I would love to write that book, but at this time I have no indication that such a book would be worth writing. Most books fail in the market, and most of them fail not because they are poorly written or edited, but because there aren’t enough people interested in them. They are not the right it.What you are reading now is a pretotype edition of the book. I wrote and “edited” it in days instead of months, just to test the level of interest in such a book. I had a few friends and colleagues review it, but don’t be surprised if you find typos, misspellings, bad grammar, awkward formatting and all sorts of misteaks.Releasing it in its present state is not easy for me.The toughest thing about pretotyping is not developing pretotypes, that’s the fun part. The tough part is getting over our compulsion for prema- ture perfectionism and our desire to add more features, or content, before releasing the first version. The tough part is getting our pretotypes in front of people, where they will be judged, criticized and – possibly – rejected.Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn once said: “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”I am plenty embarrassed. I must be on the right track.http://www.pretotyping.org/pretotype-...

Effective Unit Testing


Lasse Koskela - 2012
    Savvy Java developers know that not all testing is created equal. In addition to traditional functional testing, many shops are adopting developer testing techniques such as unit testing. Specific, automated tests are created to verify the accuracy and function of code while or even before it's written - to catch bugs early.Unit Testing in Java teaches how to write good tests that are concise and to the point, useful, and maintainable. This book focuses on tools and practices specific to Java. It introduces emerging techniques like specification by example and behavior-driven development, and shows how to add robust practices into developers' toolkits.Table of ContentsI. FOUNDATIONS1. The promise of good tests2. In search of good3. Test doublesII. CATALOG4. Readability5. Maintainability6. TrustworthinessIII. DIVERSIONS7. Testable design8. Writing tests in other JVM languages9. Speeding up test executionsAppendix A: JUnit primerAppendix B: Extending JUnitIndex

Lean Inception: How to Align People and Build the Right Product


Paulo Caroli - 2018
    The Lean Startup movement is very promising, but for many teams it ends up translating into an important question: ”Yeah, but what to build ?” “In ThoughtWorks, our response has been a process called an inception. We gather together a good sample of the people who will be affected by the product and have an intensive session to set an initial direction, using a series of exercises focusing on collaboration and the capture of broad goals. We don't attempt a detailed specification, as that is exactly the kind of thing that becomes out of date as soon as code hits production. But we do want to understand what kind of outcomes we are hoping for, the features that we think will drive these outcomes, and how to assess the effectiveness of our product. With The Lean Inception, Paulo has captured his experience in running these inceptions over the last decade. In particular it's focused on his work to boil the inception down to its essence, concentrating the activity on a single, if very intensive, week of work. Paulo shares how he makes this work, through writing a product vision, capturing personas, understanding the user journeys, and developing high-level features. The result isn't a detailed plan of work, which we find quickly rots into irrelevance. It is a guiding set of goals to set us off in the right direction. It doesn't plan out a final product, with all the features that our users will need, instead it focuses on an initial product that we can release and learn from - the Minimum Viable Product. “ – Martin Fowler, Chief Cientist at ThoughtWorks

Rework


Jason Fried - 2010
    If you're looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf.Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you'll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don't need to be a workaholic. You don't need to staff up. You don't need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don't even need an office. Those are all just excuses.  What you really need to do is stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way. You'll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank, and tons more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire and provoke you.With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of "downsizing," and artists who don’t want to starve anymore will all find valuable guidance in these pages.

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity


Alan Cooper - 1999
    Cooper details many of these meta functions to explain his central thesis: programmers need to seriously re-evaluate the many user-hostile concepts deeply embedded within the software development process. Rather than provide users with a straightforward set of options, programmers often pile on the bells and whistles and ignore or de-prioritise lingering bugs. For the average user, increased functionality is a great burden, adding to the recurrent chorus that plays: "computers are hard, mysterious, unwieldy things." (An average user, Cooper asserts, who doesn't think that way or who has memorised all the esoteric commands and now lords it over others, has simply been desensitised by too many years of badly designed software.) Cooper's writing style is often overblown, with a pantheon of cutesy terminology (i.e. "dancing bearware") and insider back-patting. (When presenting software to Bill Gates, he reports that Gates replied: "How did you do that?" to which he writes: "I love stumping Bill!") More seriously, he is also unable to see beyond software development's importance--a sin he accuses programmers of throughout the book. Even with that in mind, the central questions Cooper asks are too important to ignore: Are we making users happier? Are we improving the process by which they get work done? Are we making their work hours more effective? Cooper looks to programmers, business managers and what he calls "interaction designers" to question current assumptions and mindsets. Plainly, he asserts that the goal of computer usage should be "not to make anyone feel stupid." Our distance from that goal reinforces the need to rethink entrenched priorities in software planning. -- Jennifer Buckendorff, Amazon.com

More Eric Meyer on CSS


Eric A. Meyer - 2004
    It covers various topics which include converting an HTML-based design to a pure positioning layout; styling a photo gallery; and others.

Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability


Steve Krug - 2000
    And it’s still short, profusely illustrated…and best of all–fun to read.If you’ve read it before, you’ll rediscover what made Don’t Make Me Think so essential to Web designers and developers around the world. If you’ve never read it, you’ll see why so many people have said it should be required reading for anyone working on Web sites.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design


Jason Beaird - 2007
    A simple, easy-to-follow guide, illustrated with plenty of full-color examples, this book will lead you through the process of creating great designs from start to finish. Good design principles are not rocket science, and using the information contained in this book will help you create stunning web sites.Understand the design process, from discovery to implementation Understand what makes "good design" Developing pleasing layouts using grids, the rule of thirds, balance and symmetry Use color effectively, develop color schemes and create a palette Use textures, lines, points, shapes, volumes and depth Learn how good typography can make ordinary designs look great Effective imagery: choosing, editing and placing images And much more Throughout the book, you'll follow an example design, from concept to completion, learning along the way. The book's full-color layout and large format (8" x 10") make The Principles Of Beautiful Wed Design a pleasure to read.Editorial Reviews"The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is a good book to kick start your graphic-design journey. The biggest benefit that I got from this book is the knowledge to learn from great designs as opposed to just admiring them in a state of awe." - Slashdot.org"Jason is a great writer, and the book is quite easy to read. It's put together wonderfully, including many full color screenshots and other forms of imagery that make the book a pleasure to read. I'd definitely recommend the book to anyone in Web design." - MondayByNoon"Jason Beaird covers web design in a way that non-designers can understand. He walks you through all of the aspects of design development from initial meeting to finished product. If you are just getting into web development, this is a must read." - Blogcritics.org"This is a thoroughly practical guide to web design that is very well written: good technical depth in easy-to-understand language with excellent illustrations and graphics that support the text. For many users it will be the only web-design text they will need. For those who want to further advance their skills and knowledge it will provide a sound foundation." - PC Update"His "Don't just tell, show!" style makes this book accessible to everyone... It strikes a carefully thought-out balance between describing principles and illustrating them. It is clear and well structured, with practical examples in every chapter." - Mitch Wheat

Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience


Jeff Gothelf - 2012
    In this insightful book, leading advocate Jeff Gothelf teaches you valuable Lean UX principles, tactics, and techniques from the ground up—how to rapidly experiment with design ideas, validate them with real users, and continually adjust your design based on what you learn.Inspired by Lean and Agile development theories, Lean UX lets you focus on the actual experience being designed, rather than deliverables. This book shows you how to collaborate closely with other members of the product team, and gather feedback early and often. You’ll learn how to drive the design in short, iterative cycles to assess what works best for the business and the user. Lean UX shows you how to make this change—for the better.Frame a vision of the problem you’re solving and focus your team on the right outcomesBring the designers’ toolkit to the rest of your product teamShare your insights with your team much earlier in the processCreate Minimum Viable Products to determine which ideas are validIncorporate the voice of the customer throughout the project cycleMake your team more productive: combine Lean UX with Agile’s Scrum frameworkUnderstand the organizational shifts necessary to integrate Lean UXLean UX received the 2013 Jolt Award from Dr. Dobb's Journal as the best book of the year. The publication's panel of judges chose five notable books, published during a 12-month period ending June 30, that every serious programmer should read.

Refactoring to Patterns


Joshua Kerievsky - 2004
    In 1999, "Refactoring" revolutionized design by introducing an effective process for improving code. With the highly anticipated " Refactoring to Patterns ," Joshua Kerievsky has changed our approach to design by forever uniting patterns with the evolutionary process of refactoring.This book introduces the theory and practice of pattern-directed refactorings: sequences of low-level refactorings that allow designers to safely move designs to, towards, or away from pattern implementations. Using code from real-world projects, Kerievsky documents the thinking and steps underlying over two dozen pattern-based design transformations. Along the way he offers insights into pattern differences and how to implement patterns in the simplest possible ways.Coverage includes: A catalog of twenty-seven pattern-directed refactorings, featuring real-world code examples Descriptions of twelve design smells that indicate the need for this book s refactorings General information and new insights about patterns and refactoringDetailed implementation mechanics: how low-level refactorings are combined to implement high-level patterns Multiple ways to implement the same pattern and when to use each Practical ways to get started even if you have little experience with patterns or refactoring"Refactoring to Patterns" reflects three years of refinement and the insights of more than sixty software engineering thought leaders in the global patterns, refactoring, and agile development communities. Whether you re focused on legacy or greenfield development, this book will make you a better software designer by helping you learn how to make important design changes safely and effectively. "

Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests


Steve Freeman - 2009
    This one's a keeper." --Robert C. Martin "If you want to be an expert in the state of the art in TDD, you need to understand the ideas in this book."--Michael Feathers Test-Driven Development (TDD) is now an established technique for delivering better software faster. TDD is based on a simple idea: Write tests for your code before you write the code itself. However, this simple idea takes skill and judgment to do well. Now there's a practical guide to TDD that takes you beyond the basic concepts. Drawing on a decade of experience building real-world systems, two TDD pioneers show how to let tests guide your development and "grow" software that is coherent, reliable, and maintainable. Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce describe the processes they use, the design principles they strive to achieve, and some of the tools that help them get the job done. Through an extended worked example, you'll learn how TDD works at multiple levels, using tests to drive the features and the object-oriented structure of the code, and using Mock Objects to discover and then describe relationships between objects. Along the way, the book systematically addresses challenges that development teams encounter with TDD--from integrating TDD into your processes to testing your most difficult features. Coverage includes - Implementing TDD effectively: getting started, and maintaining your momentum throughout the project - Creating cleaner, more expressive, more sustainable code - Using tests to stay relentlessly focused on sustaining quality - Understanding how TDD, Mock Objects, and Object-Oriented Design come together in the context of a real software development project - Using Mock Objects to guide object-oriented designs - Succeeding where TDD is difficult: managing complex test data, and testing persistence and concurrency

Head First Ajax: A Brain-Friendly Guide


Rebecca M. Riordan - 2008
    Head First Ajax gives you an up-to-date perspective that lets you see exactly what you can do--and has been done--with Ajax. With it, you get a highly practical, in-depth, and mature view of what is now a mature development approach. Using the unique and highly effective visual format that has turned Head First titles into runaway bestsellers, this book offers a big picture overview to introduce Ajax, and then explores the use of individual Ajax components--including the JavaScript event model, DOM, XML, JSON, and more--as it progresses. You'll find plenty of sample applications that illustrate the concepts, along with exercises, quizzes, and other interactive features to help you retain what you've learned.Head First Ajax covers:The JavaScript event modelMaking Ajax requests with XMLHTTPREQUEST objectsThe asynchronous application modelThe Document Object Model (DOM)Manipulating the DOM in JavaScriptControlling the browser with the Browser Object ModelXHTML FormsPOST RequestsXML Syntax and the XML DOM treeXML Requests & ResponsesJSON -- an alternative to XMLAjax architecture & patternsThe Prototype LibraryThe book also discusses the server-side implications of building Ajax applications, and uses a black box approach to server-side components.Head First Ajax is the ideal guide for experienced web developers comfortable with scripting--particularly those who have completed the exercises in Head First JavaScript--and for experienced programmers in Java, PHP, and C# who want to learn client-side programming.

Software Design Decoded: 66 Ways Experts Think


Marian Petre - 2016
    Expert software designers have specific habits, learned practices, and observed principles that they apply deliberately during their design work. This book offers sixty-six insights, distilled from years of studying experts at work, that capture what successful software designers actually do to create great software.The book presents these insights in a series of two-page illustrated spreads, with the principle and a short explanatory text on one page, and a drawing on the facing page. For example, "Experts generate alternatives" is illustrated by the same few balloons turned into a set of very different balloon animals. The text is engaging and accessible; the drawings are thought-provoking and often playful.Organized into such categories as "Experts reflect," "Experts are not afraid," and "Experts break the rules," the insights range from "Experts prefer simple solutions" to "Experts see error as opportunity." Readers learn that "Experts involve the user"; "Experts take inspiration from wherever they can"; "Experts design throughout the creation of software"; and "Experts draw the problem as much as they draw the solution."One habit for an aspiring expert software designer to develop would be to read and reread this entertaining but essential little book. The insights described offer a guide for the novice or a reference for the veteran--in software design or any design profession.A companion web site provides an annotated bibliography that compiles key underpinning literature, the opportunity to suggest additional insights, and more.

jQuery Pocket Reference


David Flanagan - 2010
    This book is indispensable for anyone who is serious about using jQuery for non-trivial applications." -- Raffaele Cecco, longtime developer of video games, including Cybernoid, Exolon, and StormlordjQuery is the "write less, do more" JavaScript library. Its powerful features and ease of use have made it the most popular client-side JavaScript framework for the Web. This book is jQuery's trusty companion: the definitive "read less, learn more" guide to the library.jQuery Pocket Reference explains everything you need to know about jQuery, completely and comprehensively. You'll learn how to:Select and manipulate document elementsAlter document structureHandle and trigger eventsCreate visual effects and animationsScript HTTP with Ajax utilitiesUse jQuery's selectors and selection methods, utilities, plugins and moreThe 25-page quick reference summarizes the library, listing all jQuery methods and functions, with signatures and descriptions.