Corporate and commercial software-development teams all want solutions for one important problem—how to get their high-pressure development schedules under control. In RAPID DEVELOPMENT, author Steve McConnell addresses that concern head-on with overall strategies, specific best practices, and valuable tips that help shrink and control development schedules and keep projects moving. Inside, you’ll find:
A rapid-development strategy that can be applied to any project and the best practices to make that strategy work
Candid discussions of great and not-so-great rapid-development practices—estimation, prototyping, forced overtime, motivation, teamwork, rapid-development languages, risk management, and many others
A list of classic mistakes to avoid for rapid-development projects, including creeping requirements, shortchanged quality, and silver-bullet syndrome
Case studies that vividly illustrate what can go wrong, what can go right, and how to tell which direction your project is going
RAPID DEVELOPMENT is the real-world guide to more efficient applications development.
Steve McConnell is a consultant to software-intensive companies in the Puget Sound area, including Microsoft. His primary focus has been on the development of mass-distribution commercial microcomputer software. In addition to more theoretical projects such as writing this book and Code Complete, he has personally written more than 50,000 lines of production code in the last five years. McConnell earned a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and a master’s degree in software engineering from Seattle University. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society and the ACM.
