The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World (Expert's Voice)

Contents at a Glance......Page 5
Contents......Page 7
Foreword......Page 14
About the Author......Page 18
Acknowledgments......Page 20
Introduction......Page 22
From the First Edition......Page 26
A Note to Women Who Code......Page 27
What This Book Brings to the Party......Page 28
A Quick Peek at the Chapters......Page 29
PART I - SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT IN AN IMPERFECT WORLD......Page 34
Unrealistic Deadlines......Page 54
Vague Definition of Requirements......Page 61
Inadequate Time for Analysis and Design......Page 64
Sometimes the Enemy Is Within......Page 67
No Time or Resources for Testing......Page 69
Poor Company Management......Page 71
Internal Politics......Page 74
The Unexpected......Page 75
So You Thought You’d Just Be Coding All Day, Eh?......Page 36
What’s a Nice Programmer Like Me. . .......Page 38
Why People Run Businesses and Pay Programmers......Page 39
The Corporate World Is Not Logical......Page 41
You Can’t Win If You Don’t Play......Page 44
The Food Chain......Page 46
The Various Species of Programmers......Page 49
What’s in It for Me?......Page 77
Who Needs These Skills?......Page 81
Taking Control of Your Time......Page 83
Improving Interaction......Page 85
Getting What You Want......Page 86
PART II - GUERILLA TACTICS FOR FRONT-LINE PROGRAMMERS......Page 89
Preventing Arbitrary Deadlines......Page 90
Defining the Process......Page 91
Commissioning a New Software Project......Page 94
Identifying the Requirements......Page 95
Building Your Testing Environment......Page 96
Entering the Design Phase......Page 97
Estimating the Effort......Page 99
Coding Bliss......Page 101
Addressing the Installation Issues......Page 102
Managing the Beta Phase......Page 103
Getting Your Requirements Etched in Stone......Page 105
You Don’t Have to Like It. It Just Has to Be Clear.......Page 106
Where Does the Power Lie?......Page 107
Politics Are an Inescapable Reality......Page 109
Identifying the Other Influential People......Page 111
Selling the Process......Page 112
The Definition Questions......Page 113
Preparations for Effective Information Gathering......Page 114
Defining the Requirements......Page 116
When the Party’s Over......Page 118
Coping with a Hostile Environment......Page 119
Politics Are Never Far Away......Page 123
Effective Design Under Fire......Page 124
Design? What Design?......Page 125
Estimating the Design Effort......Page 126
Rolling Your Own Design Methodology......Page 129
Hitting the High Points......Page 134
Effective Prototyping......Page 135
When You Can’t Get Even This Much Time......Page 137
Onward to Implementation......Page 139
Practical Estimating Techniques......Page 140
Understanding the Process......Page 141
Avoiding Common Mistakes......Page 142
The Myth of the Eight-Hour Day......Page 143
Crunching the Numbers......Page 145
Converting Hours to Delivery Dates......Page 147
Don’t Forget the Final Details......Page 150
Wrapping Up the Project......Page 152
What If Things Didn’t Go by the Book?......Page 153
Fighting for Quality Assurance......Page 155
How Do We Get Away with Buggy Releases?......Page 156
Justifying a Quality Assurance Effort......Page 157
What’s a Tester?......Page 159
Building Your Team......Page 161
Training Your Testers......Page 162
Make the Testers Feel Like a Part of the Team......Page 164
Establishing the QA Process......Page 166
Keeping Track of Your Time......Page 169
Managing Your Team......Page 171
Improving Your Coding Discipline......Page 172
Thinking Ahead to Debugging......Page 175
Incorporating Version Control......Page 176
Improving Productivity......Page 177
Knowing When to Walk Away......Page 179
Optimizing Your Meetings......Page 180
Wrapping It Up......Page 184
Managing Your Management......Page 186
Improving Communications......Page 187
Instituting Change......Page 190
Bolstering Your Position......Page 192
Frontal Assaults (For Those Who Respond to Reason)......Page 194
Stealth Tactics (When Reason Is Not Enough)......Page 196
Credibility, the Key to Success......Page 198
Corporate Self-Defense......Page 201
What Do You Have to Lose?......Page 202
Picking Your Battles......Page 203
Avoid Being a Target......Page 206
Assessing the Lay of the Land......Page 207
Escape and Evade......Page 208
If You Must Attack......Page 209
Improving Your Skills......Page 211
PART III - BUILDING A BETTER CAREER......Page 213
Controlling Your Destiny......Page 214
Considering Your Options......Page 215
The Company Man......Page 217
The Mercenary......Page 219
The Entrepreneur......Page 222
Off to the Races......Page 224
Get a Job (Sha na na na. . .)......Page 225
The Usual Suspects......Page 226
Fame for Fun and Profit......Page 230
Getting the Word Out......Page 231
Digging Deeper......Page 232
Shuffling Paper......Page 233
Face Time......Page 239
Captain, She Canna Take Much More o\' This!......Page 243
Life Beyond Coding......Page 244
Where’s a Compass When You Need One?......Page 247
Abandon Ship!......Page 249
Where Do We Go from Here?......Page 250
Turning Passion into Paychecks......Page 251
Flying Solo......Page 254
Many Hats......Page 255
Getting the Picture......Page 261
Know Your Weaknesses......Page 262
Creating Your Deliverables......Page 263
Distribution Decisions......Page 264
Getting the Word Out......Page 265
Continuing Education......Page 266
Job Security......Page 267
Long-Term Thinking......Page 269
Taking Care of Your Peers......Page 270
Improving Communication......Page 271
Overcoming Fear of Change......Page 272
Turning Drudgery into Games......Page 273
Promoting Your Agenda......Page 274
Becoming a General......Page 275
Inspiring Innovation......Page 276
Generating Enthusiasm......Page 277
Promoting Unity......Page 279
The Indispensable Programmer......Page 280
Index......Page 282