Ship It!: A Practical Guide To Successful Software Projects

Ship It! helps teams get software out the door. Here you'll find a wealth of solid, practical advice in an easy, approachable format. You can fix many of the common problems facing software projects today with this concise introduction: you'll see the tools a successful team has to use, and learn how to use them well. You'll get quick, easy-to-follow advice on modern techniques and when they should be applied. Your team will be able to Ship It!

Full Description
Ship It! is a collection of tips that show the tools and techniques a successful project team has to use, and how to use them well. You'll get quick, easy-to-follow advice on modern practices: which to use, and when they should be applied. This book avoids current fashion trends and marketing hype; instead, readers find page after page of solid advice, all tried and tested in the real world.

Aimed at beginning to intermediate programmers, Ship It! will show you:

• Which tools help, and which don't
  
• How to keep a project moving
  
• Approaches to scheduling that work
  
• How to build developers as well as product
  
• What's normal on a project, and what's not
  
• How to manage managers, end-users and sponsors
  
• Danger signs and how to fix them

Few of the ideas presented here are controversial or extreme; most experienced programmers will agree that this stuff works. Yet 50 to 70 percent of all project teams in the U.S. aren't able to use even these simple, well-accepted practices effectively. This book will help you get started.

Ship It! begins by introducing the common technical infrastructure that every project needs to get the job done. Readers can choose from a variety of recommended technologies according to
their skills and budgets. The next sections outline the necessary steps to get software out the door reliably, using well-accepted, easy-to-adopt, best-of-breed practices that really work.

Finally, and most importantly, Ship It! presents common problems that teams face, then offers real-world advice on how to solve them.

About the Author
Jared Richardson is a programmer, speaker, author, and trainer. He helps teams build better software through his company Agile Artisans. In addition to this book, he’s a contributer to the No Fluff Just Stuff Anthology 2006 and 2007 editions. Since becoming an independent consultant, Jared spends most of his time trying to avoid mowing the grass.

Will Gwaltney is a software developer with over 20 years experience. In that time he hasn’t quite seen it all, but he’s seen most of it (and a lot of it hasn’t been pretty). He’s worked at both large companies and start-ups in the fields of electronics CAD, networking, telecommunications, knowledge representation, and web-based planning and scheduling for the enterprise. Will currently works on test automation at SAS Inc., the largest privately-owned software company in the world.