December is always a busy book month in our household. We have one PhD candidate and one Masters Graduate, both the sciences (one in molecular plant biology and the other in the behavior aspects neuroscience). So books are always great gifts.
Here are the books coming this way for Christmas
Software Measurement and Estimation lays the groundwork for making credible estimates of software development
The book starts with the foundations of measurement of software projects. It identifies the appropriate metrics and provides the techniques and tools for estimating the effort needed to reach specific levels of quality and performance for software development projects.
The factors that impact the accuracy and precision of the estimates are examined, and processes needed to adjust and improve the estimates are shown through examples of how to develop the estimate to complete for projects that need to know something about on-time, on-budget, and the expected compliance with the measures of effectiveness, measures of performance, technical performance measures, and key performance parameters needed to deliver the needed capabilities to assure the business or mission value is being delivered.
When you hear estimates can't be made, estimates are always wrong, estimates add no value, you'll know none of that is true. Those conjecturing that probably haven't been trained, or have the experience and skills to make credible estimates. This book is a start.
Network Science is a book introduced to me by our son, who is a molecular plant biology researcher. As he would tell us everything is a network. This book came from a graduate course in biology.
The great thing about the book is there is an electronic version online, http://barabasi.com/networksciencebook/. There is also a 451MB zip file of all the slides and graphics in the book.
I like hardback books. I was the child of a University Librarian and grew up reading actual books. But this electronic version is very useful, if only for the searching capabilities.
There are many voices in our Software Intensive System of Systems world that use terms like anti-fragile, vulnerability, complexity, without having the mathematical background for putting those words to use. This book provides that.
I think the next century will be the century of complexity - Stephen Hawking
The Patterns Handbook is missing from my collection. Amazon had a very affordable version, so it went on the Christmas list as well.
Patterns were a hot topic in the late 70's, starting with Christopher Alexander's Synthesis of Form.
There were several other patterns books, but this collects many of them in one place.
There are also anti-patterns books you should have on your shelf.
Anti-Patterns in Project Management and Anti-Patterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis.
I suspect many self-proclaimed expert agile voices who expose methods for improving development haven't actually read any of these seminal works. If they did, they'd discover what is being claimed as new and innovative, was actually olde hat in the late 70's.
