Managing Software Maniacs

Ken Whitaker offers invaluable advice on easing every aspect of programmer management, including attracting and keeping developers, office dynamics, building successful development teams, and more. Written in a humorous--yet practical style--the book includes case studies and examples throughout.

As the technology leader at a small software company, you need to focus on people, products, processes, and technology as you bring your software to market, while doing your best to put out fires and minimize headaches. Growing Software is your guide to juggling the day-to-day challenges of running a software company while managing those long-term problems and making sure that your business continues to grow. With practical, hands-on advice, Growing Software will teach you how to build and lead an effective team, define and sell your products, work with everyone from customers to CEOs, and ensure high-quality results. Instead of learning by trial and error, you'll benefit from author Louis Testa's 20+ years of management experience. Testa combines big-picture advice, specific solutions, and real-life anecdotes to teach you how to: –Work effectively with your CEO and executive team –Improve development team efficiency and enthusiasm –Evaluate your software methodology to improve effectiveness and safeguard against failure –Use product prototypes to bridge the gap between marketing and engineering –Defuse technology time bombs Whether you're new to managing software or newly lost, Growing Software will help you and your growing company thrive.

This thoroughly updated edition of the bestselling original is short on theory and long on practical, hands-on advice. Packed with realistic scenarios and case studies, this book shows readers how to avoid most of the problems encountered in the software development process.

For more than 20 years, this has been the best selling guide to software engineering for students and industry professionals alike. This edition has been completely updated and contains hundreds of new references to software tools.

The Essentials of Logistics and Management provides a broad expertly guided investigation into the knowledge required to maximize the practice of logistics in a way that contributes to a company's growth. The text elaborates upon a conceptual framework in which the role of all stakeholders and possible logistics are analyzed in a systematic approach that explores customer relations management, interactive information support, production optimization, and operations management, as well as human resources and resource allocation. The purpose of this book is help managers employ vision and strategy in developing a methodology that identifies, evaluates, and utilizes all critical factors.

How to be sure your first important project isnþt your last.

Is your website project out of control? Every website project needs a manager. Developing Effective Websites describes Internet technologies in plain language and helps you see beyond your expertise to the big picture. It does this by drawing on established software project and management principles. Like any project, effective management of website development starts by understanding and balancing the constraints of time, resources, and tasks. You can deliver your project on time and on budget, by following a process that includes: · Analyzing the requirements of users and your market · Developing a workplan for the site and breaking it down to tasks · Scheduling with Gantt and PERT charts and measuring slippage for more accurate revisions · Estimating cost by the budget-first or design-first methods · Using the team development process and covering all the necessary roles · Aligning contractor and client interests to create a win-win relationship · Following an iterative development process for designing, prototyping, and building out · Applying software testing principles to website development · Making hosting decisions and planning for maintenance

Go from the "IT guy" to trusted business partner If you're in IT, quite a lot is expected of you and your team: be technologically advanced, business-minded, customer-focused, and financially astute, all at once. In the face of unforgiving competition, rampant globalization, and demanding customers, business leaders are discovering that it's absolutely essential to have a strong, active partner keeping a firm hand on the decisions and strategies surrounding information technology. Unleashing the Power of IT provides tangible, hard-hitting, real-world strategies, techniques, and approaches that will immediately transform your IT workforce and culture, presenting the new mindset, skill set, and tool set necessary for IT leaders to thrive in today's challenging environment. Includes new discussion on social media Offers online access to the IT Skill Builder Competency Assessment Tool Features top ten lists of tips and techniques, proven frameworks, and practical guidance to help you launch and sustain your IT culture change and professional development initiatives Profiling several world-class organizations that have implemented the principles in this book, Unleashing the Power of IT reveals the best practices to get you on the path to implementation.

The definitive behind-the-scenes story of the visionary team that launched the handheld industry. Palm insider Andrea Butter and New York Times columnist David Pogue -- with full, exclusive cooperation of the company's founders and more than fifty key Palm and Handspring executives -- tell the riveting tale of the start of an industry constantly in the headlines. The origins of this volatile industry began with the tiny team who beat staggering odds to turn the PalmPilot into a billion-dollar market and later took their ultimate vision to Handspring, now Palm's most powerful rival. Many of today's current events relating to the competition in this industry are forecasted in this important business drama. The authors take an unprecedented look at how the visionary founders of the industry led one of the most successful startups in history to succeed against all odds-including a shoestring budget, shortsighted corporate partners, and competition from Microsoft. The roller-coaster ride is full of insight into the bungles of venture capitalists, the allure and pitfalls of partnerships with giant corporations, and the steely determination needed to maintain entrepreneurial and visionary independence. With gripping accounts of the last-minute crises that almost torpedoed the PalmPilot on the eve of its unveiling, and the triumphant, unprecedented reception of Palm in the marketplace, as well as the glimpses into the future of this industry, this book is as entertaining as it is instructional. Key revelations include: * The principles of business, economy, and product design that led Palm to succeed where billion-dollar corporations like Apple, Motorola, and Casio had failed. * Important moments in technological development of the handheld such as the secret "Easter egg," a software surprise planted in the Palm software that nearly sank launch plans. * Unique insight into the showdown with Microsoft, and 3Com's tragic decision not to make Palm independent that led Palm's founder Jeff Hanwkins and CEO Donna Dubinsky to take their vision elsewhere. * The ongoing competition between Palm and Handspring. The new rivals to contend with including Sony.

This book has assembled a guide that will help you hire, motivate, and mentor a software development team that functions at the highest level. Their rules of thumb and coaching advice form a great blueprint for new and experienced software engineering managers alike. All too often, software development is deemed unmanageable. The news is filled with stories of projects that have run catastrophically over schedule and budget.