Articles

---

Associate Editor Ross Gagliano offers four short reviews of
current Software Engineering Books of Interest

1. Software Process Dynamics by Raymond J. Madachy (IEEE Press, 2008). When Ed Yourdon says that this is possibly the "best software engineering book" of the year, and possibly the decade, one can hardly argue. This is a massive compilation of highly useful models and techniques for this critical field. Created to teach from, one can easily recognize that this book should also be on every professional's desk.

2. Software Development Rhythms: Harmonizing Agile Practices for Synergy by Kim Man Lui and Keith C. C. Chan (Wiley-Interscience, 2008). Exploiting the musical metaphor, these two Hong Kong trained software engineers discuss best (agile) practices that they claim lead to higher synergies, better development management, and ultimately superior products. It is full of case studies, anecdotes, and exercises, all illustrated with clever, yet instructive cartoons.

3. Software Testing: Testing Across the Entire Software Development Life Cycle by Gerald D. Everett and Raymond McLeod, Jr. (IEEE Press, 2007). A difficult subject to teach in the classroom, and a more demanding enterprise in the field, the rudiments of software testing are detailed in this book in various phases of the life cycle. Building on first principles, the authors attempt to integrate relevant and complex real world issues and concepts.

4. Software Maintenance Management: Evaluation and Continuous Improvement by Alain April and Alain Abran (IEEE Computer Society, 2008). Having the daunting task of describing the source of the vast majority of the total life cycle costs of typical software systems, the book is a fresh approach to an often otherwise dull and boring subject area. These two Canadian software experts pool their talents and experiences to bring together necessary but mostly ignored software maintenance (including testing) topics.

Ross Gagliano is a retired professor and co-founder of the Computer Science Department at Georgia State University. Previously, he was a senior researcher at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.


Source: Ubiquity Volume 9, Issue 20 (May 20 - May 26, 2008)