Publisher's Synopsis
If you're new to software management or have other roles in a software organization and would like to look behind the curtain at how developers think and work, you'll find this book insightful.
I've often said to myself, "I can't believe this is still happening." I said it in 2001...2005...2011...2017...2022...2025, you get the idea. Therefore, I want to offer some advice to help avoid these common pitfalls.
Having fulfilled just about every role you can in the software development business - developer, team lead, project manager, development manager, product manager, program manager, director, VP and CTO - everything the engine room side of the house has to offer.
A View From the Middle is written in anecdotal style, recalling the real-life experiences of a software development manager and offering an inside look at the other key roles that comprise a software organization.
I've worked in companies with several thousand employees and others with fewer than 40 team members, and what I've observed consistently is that all organizations make the same mistakes - over and over again. Large organizations may have more processes, but that only controls the checkpoint bureaucracy and does nothing to prevent the mistakes the folks with their fingers on the keyboards and their managers and directors make time and time again.
This book can be read from start to finish, or you can easily cherry-pick the chapters that are of greatest interest. Here's a sampling:
- Developer Speak for the CEO
- Developers are not Interchangeable
- Software as Jell-O
- Agile Process vs. Product Delivery Process
- Is it time to build the next-generation product?
- Avoiding the reality-distortion field
- The joys and comforts of Waterfall Software Development
- Black Swan projects
