Book description
Get the brutal truth about coding, testing, and project management—from a Microsoft insider who tells it like it is. I. M. Wright's deliberately provocative column "Hard Code" has been sparking debate amongst thousands of engineers at Microsoft for years. And now (despite our better instincts), we're making his opinions available to everyone.
In this collection of over 80 columns, Eric Brechner's alter ego pulls no punches with his candid commentary and best practice solutions to the issues that irk him the most. He dissects the development process, examines tough team issues, and critiques how the software business is run, with the added touch of clever humor and sardonic wit. His ideas aren't always popular (not that he cares), but they do stimulate discussion and imagination needed to drive software excellence.
Get the unvarnished truth on how to:
Improve software quality and value—from design to security
Realistically manage project schedules, risks, and specs
Trim the fat from common development inefficiencies
Apply process improvement methods—without being an inflexible fanatic
Drive your own successful, satisfying career
Don't be a dictator—develop and manage a thriving team!
Companion Web site includes:
Agile process documents
Checklists, templates, and other resources
Table of contents
- I. M. Wright’s “Hard Code”: A Decade of Hard-Won Lessons from Microsoft®
- Reader Acclaim for I. M. Wright’s “Hard Code” Column
- Foreword
- Foreword to the First Edition
- Introduction
-
1. Project Mismanagement
- June 1, 2001: “Dev schedules, flying pigs, and other fantasies”
- October 1, 2001: “Pushing the envelopes: Continued contention over dev schedules”
- May 1, 2002: “Are we having fun yet? The joy of triage.”
- December 1, 2004: “Marching to death”
- October 1, 2005: “To tell the truth”
- September 1, 2008: “I would estimate”
- May 1, 2009: “It starts with shipping”
- September 1, 2009: “Right on schedule”
- May 1, 2010: “Coordinated agility”
-
2. Process Improvement, Sans Magic
- September 2, 2002: “Six Sigma? Oh please!”
- October 1, 2004: “Lean: More than good pastrami”
- April 1, 2005: “Customer dissatisfaction”
- March 1, 2006: “The Agile bullet”
- October 1, 2007: “How do you measure yourself?”
- October 1, 2010: “You can depend on me”
- November 1, 2010: “Am I bugging you? Bug Reports”
- December 1, 2010: “There’s no place like production”
- February 1, 2011: “Cycle time—The soothsayer of productivity”
-
3. Inefficiency Eradicated
- July 1, 2001: “Late specs: Fact of life or genetic defect?”
- June 1, 2002: “Idle hands”
- June 1, 2004: “The day we met”
- July 1, 2006: “Stop writing specs, co-located feature crews”
- February 1, 2007: “Bad specs: Who is to blame?”
- February 1, 2008: “So far away—Distributed development”
- December 1, 2008: “De-optimization”
- April 1, 2009: “Your World. Easier”
- April 1, 2011: “You have to make a decision”
-
4. Cross Disciplines
- April 1, 2002: “The modern odd couple? Dev and Test”
- July 1, 2004: “Feeling testy—The role of testers”
- May 1, 2005: “Fuzzy logic—The liberal arts”
- November 1, 2005: “Undisciplined—What’s so special about specialization?”
- January 1, 2009: “Sustained engineering idiocy”
- May 1, 2011: “Test don’t get no respect”
-
5. Software Quality—More Than a Dream
- March 1, 2002: “Are you secure about your security?”
- November 1, 2002: “Where’s the beef? Why we need quality”
- April 1, 2004: “A software odyssey—From craft to engineering”
- July 1, 2005: “Review this—Inspections”
- October 1, 2006: “Bold predictions of quality”
- May 1, 2008: “Crash dummies: Resilience”
- October 1, 2008: “Nailing the nominals”
-
6. Software Design If We Have Time
- September 1, 2001: “A tragedy of error handling”
- February 1, 2002: “Too many cooks spoil the broth—Sole authority”
- May 1, 2004: “Resolved by design”
- February 1, 2006: “The other side of quality—Designers and architects”
- August 1, 2006: “Blessed isolation—Better design”
- November 1, 2007: “Software performance: What are you waiting for?”
- April 1, 2008: “At your service”
- August 1, 2008: “My experiment worked! (Prototyping)”
- February 1, 2009: “Green fields are full of maggots”
-
7. Adventures in Career Development
- December 1, 2001: “When the journey is the destination”
- October 1, 2002: “Life isn’t fair—The review curve”
- November 1, 2006: “Roles on the career stage”
- May 1, 2007: “Get yourself connected”
- September 1, 2007: “Get a job—Finding new roles”
- December 1, 2007: “Lead, follow, or get out of the way”
- July 1, 2008: “Opportunity in a gorilla suit”
- March 1, 2010: “I’m deeply committed”
- April 1, 2010: “The new guy”
- June 1, 2010: “Level up”
- September 1, 2010: “Making the big time”
- January 1, 2011: “Individual leadership”
-
8. Personal Bug Fixing
- December 1, 2002: “My way or the highway—Negotiation”
- February 1, 2005: “Better learn life balance”
- June 1, 2005: “Time enough”
- August 1, 2005: “Controlling your boss for fun and profit”
- April 1, 2006: “You talking to me? Basic communication”
- March 1, 2007: “More than open and honest”
- March 1, 2009: “I’m listening”
- July 1, 2009: “The VP-geebees”
- December 1, 2009: “Don’t panic”
- August 1, 2010: “I messed up”
- March 1, 2011: “You’re no bargain either”
-
9. Being a Manager, and Yet Not Evil Incarnate
- February 1, 2003: “More than a number—Productivity”
- September 1, 2004: “Out of the interview loop”
- November 1, 2004: “The toughest job—Poor performers”
- September 1, 2005: “Go with the flow—Retention and turnover”
- December 1, 2005: “I can manage”
- May 1, 2006: “Beyond comparison—Dysfunctional teams”
- March 1, 2008: “Things have got to change: Change management”
- June 1, 2009: “I hardly recognize you”
- October 1, 2009: “Hire’s remorse”
- November 1, 2009: “Spontaneous combustion of rancid management”
- January 1, 2010: “One to one and many to many”
- July 1, 2010: “Culture clash”
-
10. Microsoft, You Gotta Love It
- November 1, 2001: “How I learned to stop worrying and love reorgs”
- March 1, 2005: “Is your PUM a bum?”
- September 1, 2006: “It’s good to be the King of Windows”
- December 1, 2006: “Google: Serious threat or poor spelling?”
- April 1, 2007: “Mid-life crisis”
- November 1, 2008: “NIHilism and other innovation poison”
- February 1, 2010: “Are we functional?”
- Glossary
- A. About the Author
- Index
- About the Author
- Copyright
Product information
- Title: I. M. Wright’s “Hard Code”: A Decade of Hard-Won Lessons from Microsoft®
- Author(s):
- Release date: July 2011
- Publisher(s): Microsoft Press
- ISBN: 9780735663145
You might also like
book
Windows® Phone 7 Application Development 24-Hour Trainer
This unique book-and-video package for Windows® Phone 7 Application Development 24-Hour Trainer Ramp up your knowledge …
book
Web 2.0 Fundamentals: With AJAX, Development Tools, and Mobile Platforms
Designed for a broad spectrum of people with technically diverse backgrounds, this book covers the most …
book
Pro BizTalk 2009
A compendium of best practices and implementation wisdom, Pro BizTalk 2009 is based upon real feedback …
book
Introducing .NET 4.0: with Visual Studio 2010
You may know what's happening in C#, but what about the Azure cloud? How is that …