Product Description

Corporate and commercial software-development teams all want solutions for one important problem—how to get their high-pressure development schedules under control. In RAPID DEVELOPMENT, author Steve McConnell addresses that concern head-on with overall strategies, specific best practices, and valuable tips that help shrink and control development schedules and keep projects moving. Inside, you’ll find: • A rapid-development strategy that can be applied to any project and the best practices to make that strategy work • Candid discussions of great and not-so-great rapid-development practices—estimation, prototyping, forced overtime, motivation, teamwork, rapid-development languages, risk management, and many others • A list of classic mistakes to avoid for rapid-development projects, including creeping requirements, shortchanged quality, and silver-bullet syndrome • Case studies that vividly illustrate what can go wrong, what can go right, and how to tell which direction your project is going RAPID DEVELOPMENT is the real-world guide to more efficient applications development.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #257589 in Books
• Published on: 1996-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 680 pages

From the Publisher
The real-world guide to more efficient application development from the author of Code Complete.

Who is this book for?

People who are paying for development of software products and who want to reduce the development schedules and therefore the amount they have to pay to have a product developed Project managers who want to reduce the development time of their applications. Technical leads who have been asked to reduce the development time of their applications. Programmers in general who want to stay current in development techniques. Readers of Code Complete who would like to read the next book by the same author.

About the Author
Steve McConnell is a consultant to software-intensive companies in the Puget Sound area, including Microsoft. His primary focus has been on the development of mass-distribution commercial microcomputer software. In addition to more theoretical projects such as writing this book and Code Complete, he has personally written more than 50,000 lines of production code in the last five years. McConnell earned a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and a master’s degree in software engineering from Seattle University. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society and the ACM.

Customer Reviews

RAPID DEVELOPMENT: The project manager's Bible
I work for an Internet software development company, and I have made this book required reading for every project manager and technical lead in our company. McConnell's combination of conceptual knowledge, supported by hard facts, is a rare thing in software development "how-tos."

The best-practices section at the back of the book is an invaluable reference. His "bad" case studies depressed me sometimes -- mainly because they were too close to my own projects -- but the "good" ones have become the scripts for my presentations to clients. He has a way of capturing the essence of the atmosphere in a development shop, so the case studies feel as if they took place in your own office.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone whose job is managing the development process, whether that be in a technical lead or a project management position. Maybe if more people read this book and follow its guidelines, we could all stop working weekends.

Clear, concise, and readable. A must have.
This book is a constant source of reference. It is structured in a way that finding the areas relevant to your current needs is simple and the presentation is understandable. None of your jargon here. A must have for anybody that is responsible for managing the development of software.

Every Software Manager's Bible
First online review I have felt compelled to give (I'm not the only one either).

Simply the best book on software development I have ever come across. Unlike most books of this type, everything is backed up by references to other literature and research studies.

Amazingly, this book was given to me by my manager (within a software company) because he said it wasn't really his thing and that he was unlikely to ever dip into it again. Unsurprisingly, the project he was in charge of collapsed and the development team was made redundant a few weeks later. Seriously!

I'm off to order the author's other books now.