Software Development Pearls

"This is a collection of lessons that Karl Wiegers has learned over his long and, I can say this honestly, distinguished career. It is a retrospective of all the good things (and some of the bad) he picked up along the way. However, this is not a recollection of 'It was like this in my day' aphorisms, but lessons that are relevant and will benefit anybody involved, even tangentially, in software development today. The book is surprising. It is not simply a list of pearls of wisdom--each lesson is carefully argued and explained. Each one carries an explanation of why it is important to you, and importantly, how you might bring the lesson to your reality."
-- James Robertson, author of Mastering the Requirements Process

"They say experience is the best teacher. But experience is fraught with danger, because you'll make many expensive mistakes along its path. And experience is also a slow teacher. Experience's final lessons come just before you graduate--into retirement!

"Wouldn't it be great to gain a lifetime's experience early in your career, when it's most useful, without having to pay for the inevitable errors of your own experience? Much of Karl Wiegers's half-century in software and management has been as a consultant, where he's often been called upon to rectify debacles of other people's making. In Software Development Pearls, Karl lays out the most common and egregious types of maladies that he's run into. It's valuable to know where the most expensive potholes are and which potholes people keep hitting time and time again.

"Not just a disaster correspondent, Karl is well versed in the best techniques of business analysis, software engineering, and project management. So from Karl's experience and knowledge you'll gain concise but important insights into how to recover from setbacks as well as how to avoid them in the first place.

"Forty-six years ago I was lucky enough to stumble onto Fred Brooks's classic The Mythical Man-Month, which gave me tremendous insights into my new career. Karl's book is in a similar vein, but broader in scope and more relevant for today's world. My own half-century of experience confirms that he's right on the money with the lessons that he's chosen for Software Development Pearls."
-- Meilir Page-Jones, Senior Business Analyst, Wayland Systems Inc.

"Karl Wiegers has done it again! He's created yet another wonderful book full of well-rounded advice for software developers. His wisdom will be relatable to all development professionals and students--young and old, new and experienced. Although I've been doing software development for many years, this book brought timely reminders of things my team should do better. I cannot wait to have our new-to-the-job team members read this, so they can be better equipped in their learning journey.

" Software Development Pearls is rooted in actual experiences from many years of real projects, with a dose of thorough research to back up the lessons. Many software development books are so dry to read, but as with all of Karl's books, he keeps it light and engaging, chock-full of relatable stories and a few funny comments. You can read it from front to back or just dive into a particular section that's relevant to the areas you're looking to improve today. An enjoyable read plus practical advice--you can't go wrong!"
-- Joy Beatty, Vice President at Seilevel

"Karl Wiegers's Software Development Pearls achieves the challenging goal of capturing and explaining many insights that you're unlikely to be exposed to in your training, that most practitioners learn through the school of hard knocks, and yet are critical to developing great software.

"While the book's structure compels you to connect with your experience and identify how to shift your behavior as a result, it's the content that shines: a collection of 59+1 lessons that cover the broad landscape of the software development ecosystem. These insights will help you save time, collaborate more effectively, build better systems, and change your view on common misconceptions. Software Development Pearls is an easy read and is backed by a wide range of references to other experts who have discovered these same insights in their travels.

"These lessons truly are pearls: timelessly valuable elements of wisdom to make you better at developing great software, regardless of your role. You might consider getting two copies of the book: one for yourself, and one to leave where others on the team can pick it up and discover their own pearls."
-- Jim Brosseau, Clarrus

"This is an excellent book for anyone involved in software development, whether they're business analysts, software project managers or QA professionals. One of the brilliant (and unusual) aspects of the book is the way it is organized into self-contained lessons. Once you read them, they work like memes--memorable chunks of distilled knowledge that spring to mind when you need them. (This happened to me recently when I was discussing the need for a requirements competency on agile projects with a senior executive and immediately thought of Lesson #8, 'The overarching objective of requirements development is clear and effective communication.') From personal experience, I can attest to the value of lessons like #22, 'Many system problems take place at the interfaces,' but only because I was burned badly by not paying enough attention to them. Anyone in software development eventually accumulates hard-won lessons like these about what to do (and not do) in the future. This book will get you there with much less pain. As Karl Wiegers says in Lesson #7, 'The cost of recording knowledge is small compared to the cost of acquiring knowledge.' Not only is that good advice for practitioners, it also neatly captures why you should buy this book."
-- Howard Podeswa, author of The Agile Guide to Business Analysis and Planning: From Strategic Plan to Continuous Value Delivery