Management-Business Software-Technology

Putt’s Law & the Successful Technocrat: How to Win in the Information Age

Great satirical works entertain while speaking deep truths. Like a court jester or Shakespeare’s comedies, humor can often unmask human nature where polite conversation can only obscure. Thus, when approached thoughtfully, jokes play an invaluable role to any thinking person. At their best, they can correct overly genteel approaches to problems. This book, written by a pseudonymous author, does just that. It speaks foundational truths about engineering organizations with a realism that surpasses more respectful…

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Software-Technology

Modern Software Engineering: Doing What Works to Build Better Software Faster

Software engineering is a relatively young discipline that’s rapidly evolving. What practices moved software forward thirty years ago are different from what moves them today. Today, most software requires continual-release techniques in the era of Internet speed. In this book, David Farley, an expert in that area and one seasoned in business practices, brings the field up to date with practices that work. Modern Software Engineering provides a good summary informed by reading, personal practice,…

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Software-Technology

UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language

Unified Modeling Language (UML) models how software and technology are designed. Unfortunately, its committee-derived specifications are too long and too detailed for most software developers to parse. This book distills that complexity into a series of simple instructions alongside graphics. These graphics can easily serve as starters or quick interpretive guides for thorny situations. Additionally, Martin Fowler, a UML veteran, offers sage advice to help the reader know what’s most essential and what can be…

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Software-Technology

Learning UML 2.0: A Programatic Introduction to UML

Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the best standardized way to graphically depict a complex software system. It makes a technical language of glyphs to portray software integrations so that large software efforts can be more easily understood by developers. Certifications exist that allow individuals to support UML professionally. As a developer, the main problem I have with UML is that it itself is complex, often too onerous for my efforts. I deal with complex software,…

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Management-Business Program Management Software-Technology

Information Technology Project Management, 9th Edition

IT projects comprise a particularly difficult niche of project management. The field is so new, and IT professionals’ proficiencies vary widely. The technology quickly evolves, so what was true about project management a few years ago might not be relevant soon thereafter. Personalities can also pose a problem since software developers aren’t reputed to be the most personable workers. In this textbook, impressively in a ninth edition, Kathy Schwalbe provides sage advice by summarizing the…

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Leadership Management-Business Software-Technology

The Engineering Executive’s Primer: Impactful Technical Leadership

Encoding software is a highly technical task, but effective leadership is often anything but technical. Combining the two thus can be supremely difficult, but this pair of skills is necessary to fill roles like Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Unfortunately, advice is hard to come by in the literature since only a few extended books in this space. To better fill these gaps, Will Larson, known for his deep looks at…

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Management-Business Software-Technology

The Software Architect Elevator: Redefining the Architect’s Role in the Digital Enterprise

Traditionally, companies live and die by a fixed hierarchical approach where power and influence are garnered by climbing to the top of the ladder. However, recent decades have witnessed the rise of digital companies promising an economic disruption. Stereotypically, a smart young kid writes some code to change the way business is done and become rich in the process. We, in the public, then use their software for decades to come. Many companies still have…

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Leadership Management-Business Software-Technology

Tech Leadership: The Blueprint for Evolving from Individual Contributor to Tech Leader

Typically, technical education prepares students for individual positions that require a lot of self-motivated thinking. They don’t usually prepare them for leading teams. Yet some new employees might find that they want to move beyond being an individual contributor (IC) into a leadership role. Getting an MBA would be an obvious educational direction, but that expensive route might not prepare a student for the exact kind of leadership role she/he desires. In this book, Andrew…

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Presentation Software-Technology

Creating Software with Modern Diagramming Techniques: Build Better Software with Mermaid

As a computer science major in college, I learned about Unified Modeling Language (UML) as a way to visually document software. However, I soon found designing and maintaining those images to be more of a pain than they’re worth. I had to reshuffle images on graphics programs for every minor change, so keeping documentation up to date proved to be impossible. Recently, however, I discovered that someone invented a language, called Mermaid, to convert a…

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Software-Technology

Systems Analysis & Design

Information technology (IT) is a fast-moving industry. Its impact on the modern world is also immense, whether in personal, business, or governmental domains. Almost no medium-sized businesses can survive without a robust IT policy. Despite being critical, those interested in joining the IT workforce will find their skills, gained through education, become quickly outdated. Twenty-five years ago, I gained knowledge from textbooks like this by earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science, yet the field…

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