Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The May/June 2009 issue of IEEE Software has a paper by Greg Wilson on books that are “Not on the Shelves.” In it, Wilson gives the synopsis of 12 books that should be on the shelves, but are not. At least he can’t find them.

Wilson asks for more suggestions of such books that should be written. Here are a couple:

The Perfect Software Company

Describes how to create the perfect software company. It includes chapters on

1. what type of people you should hire (smart ones, with a few but not too many years experience),
2. the turnover you should have (about 5% a year so that you maintain brains, but don’t get stilted),
3. how people (should) talk to one another daily
4. basic processes:
5. know the problem (requirements),
6. create many high-level solutions (design),
7. implement a solution
8. test all along the way
9. do things correctly (quality)

Long-Term Learning

At the end of a year, you look back and ask yourself, “What have I learned this year?” Often the answer is, “I don’t know” and “Where did the time go?”

This book discusses how to create long-term learning plans. You discover something you want to learn and create a plan where you can work on that learning little by little during those few minutes here and there at work and at home where you would otherwise be doing nothing.

And one more for a bonus:

Religious (Technology) Wars

Programmers often mention “religious” wars such as “Which is the best editor – emacs or vi?” and “Which is the best x-nix shell?” and the all-time favorite “Which is the best programming language?”

There is much that the programmer can learn about such “religious” wars from studying real religious wars like the Crusades and the founding of Protestant churches and the creation and splits of well-known denominations in the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian worlds. (Books like this probably exist, but they aren’t written for the programmer in term the programmer can relate to.)

These real religious wars can teach the programmer what is important and what is not worth debating. If nothing else, the programmer won’t look like such an ignorant dolt at the next party he attends when the “cool people” start discussing liberal art-sy things. That is if the programmer is ever invited to such a party.