Head First Software Development: A Learner's Companion to Software Development

When I first looked at Head First Software Development by Dan Pilone and Russ Miles, I was thinking that it would be best targeted at people who had never formally written software before. It definitely fits that bill. But I can see a use for experienced developers who have never been exposed to agile development techniques. Either way, it's a very good book. Contents: Intro Great Software Development: Pleasing Your Customer Gathering Requirements: Knowing What The Customer Wants Project Planning: Planning For Success User Stories and Tasks: Getting To The Real Work Good-Enough Design: Getting It Done With Great Design Version Control: Defensive Development Building Your Code: Insert Tab A Into Slot B... Testing and Continuous Integration: Things Fall Apart Test-Driven Development: Holding Your Code Accountable Ending An Iteration: It's All Coming Together... The Next Iteration: If It Ain't Broke... You Still Better Fix It Bugs: Squashing Bugs Like A Pro The Real World: Having A Process In Life Appendix 1 - Leftovers: The Top 5 Things (We Didn't Cover) Appendix 2 - Techniques and Principles: Tools For The Experienced Software Developer The authors do a great job of covering the entire software development process, from getting requirements to debugging code. But instead of going back to the older and more traditional waterfall method of software development, they chose to expose the reader to the agile methodology. Personally, I think that's a great decision, as it gets across important techniques such as story cards, iterations, and test-driven development. Learning those skills as the primary way to build software goes a long way towards prepping the new developer for the marketplace. But as I contemplated this approach, I realized that the content would work for more than just new software developers. There are still a large number of long-time developers who have been raised in the waterfall method. When you start talking about agile techniques, there's a hesitancy to try something so radically different than what they've always done. HF Software Development can serve as that "first exposure" to the agile methods for them. It's no secret that I love the Head First method of teaching, so I'm convinced that the style of writing would also be perfect for absorbing the new information. It's not often that I find a book that can effectively address two audiences at entirely different ends of the spectrum. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's a Head First book that pulls it off. If you're a new software developer, this will get you started off on the right foot. And if you're an experienced (read: long-time) developer, don't be so quick to dismiss this...

Although I was initially put off by the non-serious cover and gimmicky premise, I decided to trust to O'Reilly and give this book a try. That turned out to be a great decision! Be forewarned that the real title should be "Head First AGILE Software Development," so don't expect other methodologies, but it definitely delivers. Whether you're just beginning to take the plunge into agile development, or you've been sort of trying to do it for a while but don't have a real clear picture of your goal, this is a great book for you. However, if you've been developing agilely for a while, then what you'll find here isn't much more than a refresher course or reminder of how you should be doing things.

Since becoming a Development Manager, this is the first book I've made required reading for the team. Good software development is NOT common sense. When confronted with something as complex as a software project, people tend to respond with panic (which the book calls the Big Bang) or massive attempts at control (the Waterfall method). HFSD preaches Iterative Development without all the dogma of Scrum or XP. It leaves the controversial stuff to other books, focusing on what good developers pretty much agree on. The practices are easily adopted and flexible, although like all worthwhile things in the world, they take a lifetime to master. There's a lot to like about this book. The other Head First guides are good, but the style really, really fits the material here ... maybe because development is really less about technology than it is about working with others.

Stop hacking together bad code, stop insane cost overruns and missed schedules. This great book in the terrific "Head First" series tells you how, in easy to understand ways, to use Agile Methodologies so you can stop hacking and 'programming' and start doing real product development. Produce quality software that meets the customer's requirements and do it on time and on budget. What a concept! I have used these methodologies for several years at two Fortune 100 companies and these have been the most productive and personally satisfying years of my 32 years in software engineering. There are lots of very precise, dry and boring academic books on agile methodologies and they are fine for a university class room, but if you are a practitioner and need to come up to speed on agile and make it work in the real world, this is the book. If you are familiar at all with the "Head First" series you know what to expect. If you are new to the "Head First" concept, suspend disbelief, read, do the exercises, laugh at the cartoons and soon you will find these folks have found the right way to teach new things to geeks and nerds like us. If you learn nothing more than Test Driven Development, the book will pay for itself in terms of your time. If you develop software for a living, you need this book. Period.

I've read and reviewed several of the "Head First" series of books on programming languages and software design, so I thought I would give this one a try too. Unlike so many books on software development, this one doesn't start with a terse and rather useless overview chapter. Instead it clearly tells you who this book is for: Those who have a background in programming, specifically Java, who want to learn techniques for building and delivering software. First the book explains the Head First concept in learning - using puzzles, cartoons, graphics, and anything else that should stick in your head to explain the usually dry topic of software engineering. The first three chapters - "Great Software Development", "Gathering Requirements", and "Project Planning" - talk about how software development usually goes wrong and talks about some of the methods for organizing your efforts. Chapter 4 puts some of these ideas in motion when the book analyzes the development of a mythical application, iSwoon. The book has the application get into serious trouble and then shows you the way out of the abyss using good software design methodology. Next, the book has you adding features to "BeatBox Pro", which is an application from the "Head First Java" book. This is where your ability to understand Java code comes into play. The book also discusses the use and usefulness of the Ant build tool for Java projects. However, this is a book on how to approach the design of the software, not how to perform the detailed coding, so having somewhat rusty Java skills should be acceptable. Throughout the book are puzzles, Q & A sessions, and "There are no dumb question" sessions that really drive home the points being made. The following is the table of contents for the book: 1. Great Software Development 2. Gathering Requirements 3. Project Planning 4. User Stories and Tasks 5. Good-enough Design 6. Version Control 6.5 Building Your Code 7. Testing and Continuous Integration 8. Test-Driven Development 9. Ending an Iteration 10. The Next Iteration 11. Bugs 12. The Real World Appendix A. Leftovers Section A.1. #1. UML class diagrams Section A.2. #2. Sequence diagrams Section A.3. #3. User stories and use cases Section A.4. #4. System tests vs. unit tests Section A.5. #5. Refactoring Appendix B. techniques and principles Section B.1. Development Techniques Section B.2. Development Principles In summary I would highly recommend this book for someone looking for an approachable guide to software development. It will probably also help students enrolled in a course in software engineering since it makes clear and accessible a subject that usually gets bogged down in dry academic prose in the textbooks usually assigned for such classes.