It is set up around the three parts Philosophy (TDD, CI), Process (Testing/Source control, code analysis) and Code Construction (Dependencies, Tracing, Error Handling). Always concise and to the point, though something going a bit into detail on the intricacies of build scripts and other monsters of XML. It is not specifically mentioned, but the book is clearly aimed at Microsoft / .NET developers. But lots of open source and commercial tools mentioned are also available in for other development platforms. It is certainly not plugging Microsoft in any way. For example, Team System is only mentioned three times in the whole book, in the parts explaining the build process and source control, and even then in a casual manner.

For a book aiming to transcend the IDE-centered explanation of how to program, I expected it to be even less low on code than it actually is. But clearly, you should already have a firm grasp of the IDE, and would like to go to the next level of using additional tools, combined with that other wonderful resource, people, to make a better product. That’s what this refreshing book is all about: making working product together.

You will find an abundance of small and big tips (probably familiar with some already) like:

• adding a slight delay in you continuous build process to prevent a couple of atomic checkins by one developer all triggering a new build
• setting your acceptable level of code coverage that will trigger a build fail to just below your current level, instead of some ridiculously high level that will result in build failures for weeks to come
• etc.etc. I won’t spoil in giving more details, get a copy and read it yourself!

Conclusion: This affordable 200-page book gives a seasoned developer a couple nights of good and light reading where she surely will learn a trick or two. And probably much more.

Rating: 8 (out of 10).

” Biting and humorous tales of a software engineering manager “

but let’s dive a bit deeper: This is a 2007 book, mainly compiled from the not-cheap-on-sarcasm Rands in Repose website, learning us every management trick in an unconventional way. It is from the guy who brought us NADD, Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder, this disease so typically to lots of developers all over the world. The book is divided into several parts (”The management quiver”, “The process is the product”, “Versions of you”), all covering different parts of the game. Don’t expect any popular management theories here, Rands is all about learning the office world inside-out by carefully observing the way people around you behave. Subsequently he has drawn his own conclusions here, which he’ll happily shares with the rest of us. Like nerds do, Rands really likes to divide the world in a binary way: incrementalists vs. completionists, organics vs. mechanics and so forth. The book is really packed with knowledge about office life, full of pieces of advice for upgrading your resume so it will stand out among the other 150 on the manager’s desk, what to do in the first 90 days after starting a job, how to behave in such a way that people notice you (hint: staying in your room and avoiding conversation does *not* help), when it’s to quit a job, and how to best do this (hint: throwing out all your grudges doesn’t help either). It’s all about networking, the risk of your job being offshored, living in a cave, the dreaded phone screen, vision, reflection, the Rands 1.0 hierarchy. You can just smell how at ease Rands is in this world.

The real-life equivalent of Rands (let’s use the alias here) really knows his stuff, having worked at Apple, Netscape, Symantec, Borland, and a now forgotten startup.

Conclusion: you should really pick this up if you’re on the management track, or if you just want to learn how and why your manager does what he does, and why he gets away with sitting with his feet on the desk the whole day.

Check out the wonderful Rands in Repose website by the way,  it’s a quick way to see if Rands’ style is for you. Personally I love it!

(this is the first in a – hopefully – series of reviews, that will put a bit more real content here instead of only links. Hope you like it!). O, and by the way: if you don’t read technical/non-fiction books on a regular basis, you are doing yourself an enormous disservice. It really helps to keep up to date in this ever faster, though wonderful field of software engineering.