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Rapid Development, 1st edition

Published by Microsoft Press (July 2, 1996) © 1997

  • Steve McConnell

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Corporate and commercial software-development teams all want solutions for one important problem—how to get their high-pressure development schedules under control. In RAPID DEVELOPMENT, author Steve McConnell addresses that concern head-on with overall strategies, specific best practices, and valuable tips that help shrink and control development schedules and keep projects moving. Inside, you’ll find:

  • A rapid-development strategy that can be applied to any project and the best practices to make that strategy work
  • Candid discussions of great and not-so-great rapid-development practices—estimation, prototyping, forced overtime, motivation, teamwork, rapid-development languages, risk management, and many others
  • A list of classic mistakes to avoid for rapid-development projects, including creeping requirements, shortchanged quality, and silver-bullet syndrome
  • Case studies that vividly illustrate what can go wrong, what can go right, and how to tell which direction your project is going
  • RAPID DEVELOPMENT is the real-world guide to more efficient applications development.
  • Preface
  • Part I: EFFICIENT DEVELOPMENT
    • Chapter 1: Welcome to Rapid Development
    • Chapter 2: Rapid-Development Strategy
    • Chapter 3: Classic Mistakes
    • Chapter 4: Software-Development Fundamentals
    • Chapter 5: Risk Management
  • Part II: RAPID DEVELOPMENT
    • Chapter 6: Core Issues in Rapid Development
    • Chapter 7: Lifecycle Planning
    • Chapter 8: Estimation
    • Chapter 9: Scheduling
    • Chapter 10: Customer-Oriented Development
    • Chapter 11: Motivation
    • Chapter 12: Teamwork
    • Chapter 13: Team Structure
    • Chapter 14: Feature-Set Control
    • Chapter 15: Productivity Tools
    • Chapter 16: Project Recovery
  • Part III: BEST PRACTICES
    • Introduction to Best Practices
    • Chapter 17: Change Board
    • Chapter 18: Daily Build and Smoke Test
    • Chapter 19: Designing for Change
    • Chapter 20: Evolutionary Delivery
    • Chapter 21: Evolutionary Prototyping
    • Chapter 22: Goal Setting
    • Chapter 23: Inspections
    • Chapter 24: Joint Application Development (JAD)
    • Chapter 25: Lifecycle Model Selection
    • Chapter 26: Measurement
    • Chapter 27: Miniature Milestones
    • Chapter 28: Outsourcing
    • Chapter 29: Principled Negotiation
    • Chapter 30: Productivity Environments
    • Chapter 31: Rapid-Development Languages (RDLs)
    • Chapter 32: Requirements Scrubbing
    • Chapter 33: Reuse
    • Chapter 34: Signing Up
    • Chapter 35: Spiral Lifecycle Model
    • Chapter 36: Staged Delivery
    • Chapter 37: Theory-W Management
    • Chapter 38: Throwaway Prototyping
    • Chapter 39: Timebox Development
    • Chapter 40: Tools Group
    • Chapter 41: Top-10 Risks List
    • Chapter 42: User-Interface Prototyping
    • Chapter 43: Voluntary Overtime
  • Bibliography

Steve McConnell is recognised as one of the premier authors and voices in the development community. He is Chief Software Engineer of Construx Software and was the lead developer of Construx Estimate and of SPC Estimate Professional, winner of Software Development magazine's Productivity Award. He is the author of several books, including Code Complete and Rapid Development, both honored with Software Development magazine's Jolt Award.

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