A Software Developer's Reading Plan

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This section describes the reading program that a software developer needs to work through to achieve full professional standing at my company, Construx Software. The plan described is a generic baseline plan for a software professional who wants to focus on development. Our mentoring program provides for further tailoring of the generic plan to support an individual's interests, and within Construx this reading is also supplemented with training and directed professional experiences.

Introductory Level

To move beyond "introductory" level at Construx, a developer must read the following books:

Adams, James L. Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas , 4th ed. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2001.

Bentley, Jon. Programming Pearls , 2d ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2000.

Glass, Robert L. Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering . Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2003.

McConnell, Steve. Software Project Survival Guide . Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1998.

McConnell, Steve. Code Complete , 2d ed. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 2004.

Practitioner Level

To achieve "intermediate" status at Construx, a programmer needs to read the following additional materials:

Berczuk, Stephen P. and Brad Appleton. Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration . Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2003.

Fowler, Martin. UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Obje ct Mode ling Language , 3d ed. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2003.

Glass, Robert L. Software Creativity . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Kaner, Cem, Jack Falk, Hung Q. Nguyen. Testing Computer Software , 2d ed. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Larman, Craig. Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and the Unified Process , 2d ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001.

McConnell, Steve. Rapid Development . Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1996.

Wiegers, Karl. Software Requirements , 2d ed. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 2003.

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"Manager's Handbook for Software Development," NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Downloadable fromsel.gsfc.nasa.gov/website/documents/online-doc.htm .

Professional Level

A software developer must read the following materials to achieve full professional standing at Construx ("leadership" level). Additional requirements are tailored to each individual developer; this section describes the generic requirements.

Bass, Len, Paul Clements, and Rick Kazman. Software Architecture in Practice , 2d ed. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2003.

Fowler, Martin. Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1999.

Gamma, Erich, et al. Design Patterns . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Gilb, Tom. Principles of Software Engineering Management . Wokingham, England: Addison-Wesley, 1988.

Maguire, Steve. Writing Solid Code . Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1993.

Meyer, Bertrand. Object-Oriented Software Constru ction, 2d ed. New York, NY: Prentice Hall PTR, 1997.

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"Software Measurement Guidebook," NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Available fromsel.gsfc.nasa.gov/website/documents/online-doc.htm .

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