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Software engineering

Readings in Software Engineering (RISE): a new series of posts

May 21, 2012 5 Comments
Readings in Software Engineering (RISE): a new series of posts

I have been collecting and reading books on software engineering since the 1970s, but I have found over the decades that the vast majority of programmers (and their managers) are unfamiliar with most of them. More’s the pity, for during the 38 years since I first started working in information technology (BYU Translation Sciences Institute, […]

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Five books every IT manager should read…right now

November 20, 2008 0 Comments
Five books every IT manager should read…right now

My latest Baseline column  is up, and it talks about why you should read these five books now, if you haven’t already…and if you have read them, you should probably re-read them.  ..bruce..

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Two new Baseline columns up

September 24, 2008 0 Comments
Two new Baseline columns up

The first column, “Second Class Software Quality for Major IT Projects”, talks about the curious fact that organizations are willing to spend millions, tens of millions, even hundred of millions of dollars on major IT project and yet still nickle-and-dime their software quality assurance (SQA) effort. It doesn’t help that SQA personnel are pretty much […]

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Pitfall: Allowing new features to creep (or pour) in

June 3, 2008 0 Comments
Pitfall: Allowing new features to creep (or pour) in

[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] Categories: managerial The impulse to constantly add new and incremental features to a software program certainly isn’t unique to modern software develoment, or to a particular technology or methodology. It derives largely from three sources. Upper management and marketing want, and sometimes need, those […]

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Pitfall: Abandoning good software engineering practices

May 29, 2008 0 Comments
Pitfall: Abandoning good software engineering practices

[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] Categories: managerial Why would the use of a new technology or methodology (the “TOM”) cause managers and developers to neglect or even abandon solid software engineering practices? Because those practices are under pressure from the start. Many engineers don’t know them and aren’t willing […]

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