Rapid Development

Of all Steve McConnell’s books, Code Complete gets the attention. People quote it, name websites after it, publish photographs of themselves kissing it and generally froth and foam about it. And quite right too because it’s great. However for my money his book Rapid Development is even better.

Although called Rapid Development, its name is something of a misnomer. It’s not about rapid development techniques per say, rather it’s about excellent project management techniques that as a side effect will enable your project to proceed as quickly as possible. To me it feel’s like its project managers written for developers.

If you don’t want to read it cover to cover (what’s wrong with you – read it all) then software estimation, the sections on motivation and team structure and classic mistakes are worth reading as standalone chapters. I love the estimation tables provided to measure your own schedules against. It’s illuminating to measure your own projects against them. So next time an impossible deadline looms, you’ll have the facts to back you up. Marvellous.