Exploring Extreme Programming
Clean Code, Bob Martin, Prentice-Hall, 2008. Bob Martin tackles the challenges of making code sparkling clean. He provides numerous guidelines, and demonstrates their utility in action. I particularly appreciated some of the longer examples where he really works them over. Continue reading Review – Clean Code
Current Trends in Programming Methodology, Volume 4: Data Structuring, Raymond T. Yeh, editor. Prentice-Hall, 1978. In parallel with “structured programming,” (which often focused on code structure), there was more esoteric work done on “structured data.” A lot of this found Continue reading Review – Current Trends in Programming Methodology, Vol. 4: Data Structuring
Teamwork is an Individual Skill, Chris Avery. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001. Chris spoke at the Agile a couple years ago, and I really enjoyed his talk. He explores many themes: teamwork, feedback, commitment, collaboration, trust. His perspective is that individual skills Continue reading Review – Teamwork is an Individual Skill
Leadership reading list. Continue reading Leadership Reading List
The Toyota Product Development System, James M. Morgan and Jeffrey K. Liker, Productivity Press, 2006. Toyota’s lean manufacturing system has had a lot of press, but lean influences their product development approach as well. This book emphasizes the system aspects Continue reading Review – The Toyota Product Development System
Harvard Business Review. (Magazine). This almost-monthly magazine features interesting articles on the challenges of business. I particularly enjoy the case studies, where different experts comment on a situation. I keep an article or two from almost every issue. (This month, Continue reading Review – Harvard Business Review
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, David Allen, Penguin Books, 2001. I’ve added several projects recently, and decided to use a more formal system to track everything. Getting Things Done (“GTD”) is centered around a system for managing time and, well, Continue reading Review – Getting Things Done
Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail, John Gall. Pocket Books, 1978. Peter Coffee recommended this in his keynote at Agile ’06, and I can see why. It’s a humorous look at how systems are by nature out of Continue reading Review – Systemantics
Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics, by William Dunham. ISBN 014014739X. Penguin, 1991. This book is a wonderful mix of proofs and history. The proofs are interesting (and showed me how rusty I am on some of this), Continue reading Review – Journey through Genius
Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art, Stephen Nachmanovich. Tarcher/Putnam, 1990. When everything happens in “real time”, we have improvisation, whether it’s music or drama (or software!). Nachmanovitch explores the interplay of freedom and rules, of work and play, of Continue reading Review – Free Play