Software Development Books - Software Design, Engineering, Science, Craft, Career, Profession, Quality

This page is an incomplete listing of interesting and recommended software development books. These books run the gamut from coding to project management to methodologies to design. Common themes include software design, software engineering, computer science, craft, career, profession, and quality. If you want to seriously grow in your career, here's a challenge: read a book from this list once a month. Enjoy.

Book Reviews on the developer.* Web Site

Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams

Cockburn's tolerance for extensibility and flexibility offers practitioners a foot-hold for transitioning toward agile practices.

By Alistair Cockburn (Review by Donna L. Davis)

Agile Documentation: A Pattern Guide to Producing Lightweight Documents for Software Projects

Useful documentation has its place, but it should be succinct, worded simply, and presented well.

By Andreas Rüping (Review by Donna L. Davis)

After the Gold Rush

McConnell posits Engineering as the ideal model for that professional maturation process, and he makes many solid arguments in its favor. Most of these points are based on the central idea of reusability. This is not just recycling the data access library you wrote for your last project...

By Steve McConnell (Review by Andy Tegethoff)

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture does exactly what it sets out to do: provide the reader with a catalog of proven enterprise level patterns and the knowledge to use them. Fowler describes an architectural pattern as...

By Martin Fowler (Review by Ian Joyce)

Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperative

Software engineering is a term often used to encompass the entire range of software development, from creating high-level architectural designs to low-level coding. In Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperitive, Pete McBreen proposes a more strict definition...

By Pete McBreen (Review by Melissa Bitner)

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (20th Anniversary Edition)

If a book about software development has sold over 250,000 copies (almost unheard of for technical books) and after 28 years is still in print, and selling well, it's a pretty good bet that it has something significant to offer.

By Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. (Review by Daniel Read)

UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language (2nd Edition)

Just about any developer these days who works in an object oriented language would do well to have at least cursory knowledge of the seemingly ubiquitous Unified Modeling Language (UML). If this acronym is not on your resume, then that is a hole you might want to fill.

By Martin Fowler, with Kendall Scott (Review by Daniel Read)

The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

Hunt and Thomas's The Pragmatic Programmer is the logical companion to another great book about software construction, Steve McConnell's Code Complete. Indeed, these two books make great companion volumes. Were they from the same publisher, they could be sold as a set.

By Andrew Hunt and David Thomas (Review by Daniel Read)

Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction (1st Edition)

Several years ago, when I was just getting started as a software developer, I read Steve McConnell's Code Complete all the way through, cover to cover. Then I went back and read several sections again. There is no question in my mind that...

By Steve McConnell (Review by Daniel Read)

The Design of Everyday Things

While this is not specifically a computer-oriented book, it is nonetheless a must-read for anyone who designs and develops computer software. I have learned more about design, especially user interface design, from this book than any other book that I've read...

By Donald Norman (Review by Daniel Read)

Understanding the Professional Programmer

This is probably my favorite book on the subject of software development. It is definitely my favorite of Weinberg's many excellent books. I return to this book again and again, and find something new every time.

By Gerald M. Weinberg (Review By Daniel Read)

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code

This book is essential reading for anyone involved in the construction of software using object oriented languages. Fowler and his fellow contributors do an incredible job of simultaneously introducing and formalizing a code improvement technique called "refactoring."

By Martin Fowler (Review by Daniel Read)

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