| Believed by many of our customers to be the best practical guide to writing commercial software, and Highly Recommended.
The research and programming experience collected in this handbook will help you to
create higher-quality software and to do your work more quickly and with fewer
problems. This book will give you insight into why you've had problems in the past and
will show you how to avoid problems in the future. The programming practices
described here will help you keep big projects under control and help you maintain and
modify software successfully as the demands of your projects change.
My primary concern in writing this book has been to narrow the gap between the
knowledge of industry gurus and professors on the one hand and common commercial
practice on the other. Many powerful programming techniques hide in journals and
academic papers for years before trickling down to the programming public.
Although leading-edge software-development practice has advanced rapidly in recent
years, common practice hasn't. Many programs are still buggy, late, and over budget,
and many fail to satisfy the needs of their users. Researchers in both the software
industry and academic settings have discovered effective practices that eliminate most
of the programming problems that have been prevalent since the 1970s. Because these
practices aren't often reported outside the pages of highly specialized technical journals,
however, most programming organizations aren't yet using them today. Studies have
found that it typically takes 5 to 15 years or more for a research development to make
its way into commercial practice (Raghavan and Chand 1989, Rogers 1995, Parnas
1999). This handbook shortcuts the process, making key discoveries available to the
average programmer now. |
