Even the best developers have seen well-intentioned software projects fail -- often because the customer kept changing requirements, and end users didn't know how to use the software you developed. Instead of surrendering to these common problems, let Head First Software Development guide you through the best practices of software development. Before you know it, those failed projects will be a thing of the past. With its unique visually rich format, this book pulls together the hard lessons learned by expert software developers over the years. You'll gain essential information about each step of the software development lifecycle -- requirements, design, coding, testing, implementing, and maintenance -- and understand why and how different development processes work. This book is for you if you are:

• Tired of your customers assuming you're psychic. You'll learn not only how to get good requirements, but how to make sure you're always building the software that customers want (even when they're not sure themselves)

• Wondering when the other 15 programmers you need to get your project done on time are going to show up. You'll learn how some very simple scheduling and prioritizing will revolutionize your success rate in developing software.

• Confused about being rational, agile, or a tester. You'll learn not only about the various development methodologies out there, but how to choose a solution that's right for your project.

• Confused because the way you ran your last project worked so well, but failed miserably this time around. You'll learn how to tackle each project individually, combine lessons you've learned on previous projects with cutting-edge development techniques, and end up with great software on every project.

Head First Software Development is here to help you learn in a way that your brain likes... and you'll have a blast along the way. Why pick up hundreds of boring books on the philosophy of this approach or the formal techniques required for that one? Stick with Head First Software Development, and your projects will succeed like never before. Go on, get started... you'll learn and have fun. We promise.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 14 Ratings

This actually has material for both new and long-time developers... - 2008-11-03
Reviewer Rating:
When I first looked at Head First Software Development by Dan Pilone and Russ Miles, I was thinking that it would be best targeted at people who had never formally written software before. It definitely fits that bill. But I can see a use for experienced developers who have never been exposed to agile development techniques. Either way, it's a very good book.

Contents:
Intro
Great Software Development: Pleasing Your Customer
Gathering Requirements: Knowing What The Customer Wants
Project Planning: Planning For Success
User Stories and Tasks: Getting To The Real Work
Good-Enough Design: Getting It Done With Great Design
Version Control: Defensive Development
Building Your Code: Insert Tab A Into Slot B...
Testing and Continuous Integration: Things Fall Apart
Test-Driven Development: Holding Your Code Accountable
Ending An Iteration: It's All Coming Together...
The Next Iteration: If It Ain't Broke... You Still Better Fix It
Bugs: Squashing Bugs Like A Pro
The Real World: Having A Process In Life
Appendix 1 - Leftovers: The Top 5 Things (We Didn't Cover)
Appendix 2 - Techniques and Principles: Tools For The Experienced Software Developer

The authors do a great job of covering the entire software development process, from getting requirements to debugging code. But instead of going back to the older and more traditional waterfall method of software development, they chose to expose the reader to the agile methodology. Personally, I think that's a great decision, as it gets across important techniques such as story cards, iterations, and test-driven development. Learning those skills as the primary way to build software goes a long way towards prepping the new developer for the marketplace.

But as I contemplated this approach, I realized that the content would work for more than just new software developers. There are still a large number of long-time developers who have been raised in the waterfall method. When you start talking about agile techniques, there's a hesitancy to try something so radically different than what they've always done. HF Software Development can serve as that "first exposure" to the agile methods for them. It's no secret that I love the Head First method of teaching, so I'm convinced that the style of writing would also be perfect for absorbing the new information.

It's not often that I find a book that can effectively address two audiences at entirely different ends of the spectrum. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's a Head First book that pulls it off. If you're a new software developer, this will get you started off on the right foot. And if you're an experienced (read: long-time) developer, don't be so quick to dismiss this...

Good for the new Team... but - 2009-05-10
Reviewer Rating:
I looked through this book online using Amazon and some of the pages looked of interest to me as I am working with some new teams who have not used Agile before and there were parts of this books (mainly around user stories) which got my attention.

I have been developing for 25 years and have been managing Agile teams over the last 4 years, recently using Scrum as the framework of choice. I was looking for some further material to expand my knowledge base and having read Head First Design Patterns (highly recommended) I thought this book would fit my needs.

For me, I was dissapointed. I read this book basically cover-to-cover in about 3 hours and there were aspects which made me think, on the whole there was nothing new in this book and the topics it did cover it did not go into any real depth. For me, not a good use of my money.

However, as a book to get my team and future teams who are new to Agile, Test First, Continuous Integration, Version Control, Unit Testing, User Stories, etc, this book is great and I do recommend it.

The Head First series of books take the reader on a simple journey. Nothing complex or where there is something complex they de-complex it and in some ways dumb it down to a reasonably low common-denominator. This means just about anyone can read this book and should understand the concepts and principles in it. I plan to provide this to some non-technical BA's who I work with and other than the section on Unit Testing know that they will be able to read this, digest it, and understand the principles and then hopefully use them within our organisation.

A Best Practice Book for Software Development - 2009-04-15
Reviewer Rating:
This book teach you best practices in today's software development industry. It should be a must read for any software development team member as well as project manager before the project kick off.

Great start... very technical toward the end... - 2009-03-23
Reviewer Rating:
The first half is quite useful for general software development (even general project management), and is well-written and interesting. The second half is much more specific to GUI and Java development, but is far more technical and specific to the type of problems they are working with.

I was looking at this book as a way of introducing better software development to a group of engineers who can program (i.e. not software engineers). Of course, the design, which I thought effective, was going to make it a hard sell. But everything through the chapter on source code control seemed like great stuff that would be understandable and beneficial. But then it fell off a cliff: more particular to Agile and to GUI development. Without a good familiarity with Java and UML diagrams, this part is impossible.

I'm still looking for the right book on software development for people who have written lots of great code, but never developed any software.

Great, Easy to read, Brain Friendly - 2008-09-30
Reviewer Rating:
This is my second Head First title. I have enjoyed this one just as much as Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL -- A Learner's Guide (Head First).

Some people may be put off by the style: images, stories, repetition, etc. I would encourage those people to give it a shot. The content is very well put together, thorough, and interesting.

I will encourage the rest of my team to pick up this book. We will all benefit from the concepts delivered and explained by the Head First team.

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