Classical and Object-Oriented Software Engineering

I had to buy this for my software engineering course at school, and I have found it very useful in explaining software design models and reqs and spec documentation. What I didn't expect were great anecdotes and the chapters on coding practices improved my code-writing skills more than any other source. I also like the fact that the author strayed away from language-specifics, relying more on the theory and design than the actual impementation.

I took Professor Schach's course with the last edition of this book two years ago, and it has been very useful for me now that I work at a big corporation. It is a common misconception to think of it as a UML or OOP programming book, because many people confuse software engineering with the areas of software development and programming. They are quite different. This book is best aimed at programmers that want to understand the processes that exist for writing well-planned code in a large organizations. Think of this book as focusing on the overarching _process_ of writing software. This is especially important from the perspective of a project leader or a manager in a software company. It also offers important business perspectives for software development that you should be aware of. If you want to understand why your customers are unhappy with your results, why things are over budget, or why your project keeps missing deadlines, for example. There's alot more in there as well. I really liked it, and Schach knows what he's doing. He owns a software consulting company if I remember correctly.

It is one of the best book that i have read :)