Software Design Decoded: 66 Ways Experts Think

ISBN-10: 0262035189
ISBN-13: 9780262035187
Category: Computers
Pages: 185
Language: English
Published: 2016-10-06
Publisher: MIT Press
Authors: Marian Petre, André van der Hoek

Description

An engaging, illustrated collection of insights revealing the practices and principles that expert software designers use to create great software. What makes an expert software designer? It is more than experience or innate ability. Expert software designers have specific habits, learned practices, and observed principles that they apply deliberately during their design work. This book offers sixty-six insights, distilled from years of studying experts at work, that capture what successful software designers actually do to create great software. The book presents these insights in a series of two-page illustrated spreads, with the principle and a short explanatory text on one page, and a drawing on the facing page. For example, “Experts generate alternatives” is illustrated by the same few balloons turned into a set of very different balloon animals. The text is engaging and accessible; the drawings are thought-provoking and often playful. Organized into such categories as “Experts reflect,” “Experts are not afraid,” and “Experts break the rules,” the insights range from “Experts prefer simple solutions” to “Experts see error as opportunity.” Readers learn that “Experts involve the user”; “Experts take inspiration from wherever they can”; “Experts design throughout the creation of software”; and “Experts draw the problem as much as they draw the solution.” One habit for an aspiring expert software designer to develop would be to read and reread this entertaining but essential little book. The insights described offer a guide for the novice or a reference for the veteran—in software design or any design profession. A companion web site provides an annotated bibliography that compiles key underpinning literature, the opportunity to suggest additional insights, and more.

Get the book

Similar books

Family History Digital Libraries
By William Sims Bainbridge
One named Sara and Timberlake had 11 male workers, 1 female worker, and 4 children workers, so it might have employed the Minor family.
Foundation Dreamweaver MX
By Craig Grannell, Jerome Turner, Matt Stephens
So here's what we need to do to arrive at our layout: s Create the main table to hold all the page elements. s Deal with the navigation area which is ...
Cisco CCNA Certification, 2 Volume Set: Exam 200-301
By Todd Lammle
This inclusive, two-book set provides what you need to know to succeed on the new CCNA exam. The set includes Understanding Cisco Networking Technologies: Volume 1 and the CCNA Certification Study Guide: Volume 2.
CompTIA Network+ Study Guide: Exam N10-006
By Todd Lammle
... you can use: –a –A –c –n –r –R –S –s All nbtstat switches are case sensitive. Generally speaking, lowercase switches deal with NetBIOS names of hosts, ...
CompTIA Network+ Study Guide with Online Labs: N10-007 Exam
By Todd Lammle, Jon Buhagiar
... you can use: –a –A –c –n –r –R –S –s All nbtstat switches are case sensitive. Generally speaking, lowercase switches deal with NetBIOS names of hosts, ...
CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate FastPass
By Todd Lammle
S The S reference point defines the point between the customer router and an ... with the letter E deal with using ISDN on the existing telephone network.
Stranger in the Chat Room
By Todd Hafer, Jedd Hafer
A sequel to In the Chat Room With God finds a group of teens contacted by a mysterious and increasingly malevolent character who claims to know about their encounters with the Almighty and challenges their beliefs. Original.
Error Correction Coding: Mathematical Methods and Algorithms
By Todd K. Moon
M M−1∑ k=0 −∞ ∞ k=0 The average energy per signal E s ∫ can be related to the ... we will deal primarily with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), ...
Security+ Training Guide
By Todd King
... to deal with most , but unfortunately not all , of these potential threats . ... The S / MIME standard implements encryption for message content using ...
CCDA: Cisco Certified Design Associate Study Guide: Exam 640-861
By Todd Lammle, Andy Barkl
S reference point The S reference point defines the reference point between ... with the letter E deal with using ISDN on the existing telephone network.