Continuous Learning

For some reason, there are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about software development. Maybe this is the way it is for all fields, but that would be surprising. If it is just urban legends for outsiders, that makes sense and adds to the mysterious appeal. However, I would venture to say that most people in this field all have different views on what software engineering is, and many of them are simply incorrect understandings.

Robert Glass’s book - Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering - happens to provide a good source for many of these myths and misunderstandings. Robert has been in the industry for a loooong time, and he has a lot to say on this matter, with 55 facts that ranges from Management, Lifecycle, Quality, to Research, as well as 10 Fallacies that cover Management, Lifecycle, and Education. Some of the facts are well known. For example, Fact 3 “adding more people to a late project makes it later” is Brooke’s Law, established almost 30 years ago. Some other facts, though, are the opposite and little known, but the author still believe they are fundamentally important to be listed.

Given the nature of our field, such a book of course can stir a lot of controversy if the author simply presents their view as the gospel. To that end Robert has provided a fair treatment for each topic and help bring to light the opposing opinions. With the current affair, no one has all the solutions, but someone must start the conversations on each of sticky points and hopefully industry-wide practices can arise from the effort.

The following are the central themes that I’ve identified from the book:

• Management is the biggest issue in software engineering today
• There is too much hype in this field - people are just chasing fad after fad
• People is key to software, especially developers

The reading is easy as the book is written in a conversational tone. I found myself agree to many of his assertions, and disagree on some. Your mileage may vary

The only challenge I have with the book is that I believe there are a couple more myths that are not covered by his book, but are still primarily important. I will write about them in upcoming articles.

Who will benefit from this book?

I believe anyone serious about software engineering and software project management will benefit from this book, whether one is technically oriented or not. Most of us are so deep into the doing and we do not realize that much of what we do is in conflict with software principles, and this book will help bring those to light. As a practitioner I know this is extremely difficult to do and require commitment, but if you are committed about your career and profession, then you will find this book helpful, even if you do not agree