Growing Software

Proven Strategies for Managing Software Engineers

by Louis Testa

March 2009, 424 pp.

ISBN-13:

9781593271831

As the technology leader at a small software company, you need to focus on people, products, processes, and technology as you bring your software to market, while doing your best to put out fires and minimize headaches.

Growing Software is your guide to juggling the day-to-day challenges of running a software company while managing those long-term problems and making sure that your business continues to grow. With practical, hands-on advice, Growing Software will teach you how to build and lead an effective team, define and sell your products, work with everyone from customers to CEOs, and ensure high-quality results.

Instead of learning by trial and error, you'll benefit from author Louis Testa's 20+ years of management experience. Testa combines big-picture advice, specific solutions, and real-life anecdotes to teach you how to:

Work effectively with your CEO and executive team
Improve development team efficiency and enthusiasm
Evaluate your software methodology to improve effectiveness and safeguard against failure
Use product prototypes to bridge the gap between marketing and engineering
Defuse technology time bombs

Whether you're new to managing software or newly lost, Growing Software will help you and your growing company thrive.

Author Bio

Louis Testa is Senior Engineering Manager at Galois, a small company that specializes in high-assurance software. He received his BS (with honors) in Engineering from Caltech and his MS EE from the University of California, Berkeley. He has managed engineering teams for over 20 years, and his papers have been featured at many technology conferences. He blogs at www.gspractices.com.

Table of contents

Introduction

SECTION I: Development Team
1: Getting Started
2: Managing a Development Team
3: Creating an Effective Development Team
4: Growing a Software Team

SECTION II: Product and Technology
5: Defining the Product
6: Driving Releases
7: Evaluating Your Tools and Methods
8: Assessing Your Technology

SECTION III: Outside of Engineering
9: Working with Your Company
10: Working with the CEO and the Executive Team
11: Listening to Your Customers

SECTION IV: Making Work Flow: Projects, Process, and Quality
12: Project Estimating
13: Starting a Project
14: Project Execution and Tracking
15: Designing a Software Development Process
16: Process Improvement
17: Understanding Quality Assurance

SECTION V: Planning the Future
18: Setting the Direction
19: Product Roadmap and Strategy
20: Going Forward

Appendix A: Software Company Structure
Appendix B: Internationalization
Appendix C: Corporate Workflow Diagram
References

View the detailed Table of Contents (PDF)
View the Index (PDF)

Reviews

"Full of hands-on advice on how to deal with the whole workflow surrounding the creation of software."
—Programming Zen (Read More)

"I found it reassuring on those topics already within my experience, and enlightening on the areas beyond."
—Edinburgh Perl Mongers (Read More)