Modern Software Engineering: Doing What Works to Build Better Software Faster

Every software and engineering company should value these ideas
Every software and engineering company should value these ideas, which distill the real essence of important differentiators in engineering.Starting with understanding how Test Driven Development and Continuous Delivery apply and enable the scientific process to software engineering, the author builds to describing some fundamental principles which can be applied more generally than software, and often with greater effect and impact on positive outcomes than some traditionally debated decisions like which language to use.

Building good software is simple — but not easy.
When Dave Farley speaks or writes I pay attention. The CD book blew me away in 2010. This book doesn’t add many new concepts or ideas to the discussion of what good software engineering looks like. But that’s ok. It pulls a lot of apparently disparate things together at various levels of detail and helps you see how they relate to one another. It takes some positions that I don’t necessarily agree with but any book worth reading should challenge your thinking. For example, it pushes TDD hard. I’m sorry, but the experience of many (I’d say most) is that (new of modified) tests being accompanied by a change during any checkin is more important than how you achieve that outcome. I tire when people suggest that TDD is the only way to do that. My point here is an illustration of outcome mattering more than mechanism, ironically covered in the last chapter of the book. That said, the book is loaded with sound advice, backed by experience that few people can match. Definitely worth a read.

Puts engonerrong back into software development!
Recently, I finished reading this great book by Dave Farley. It immediately was added to my “zero B.S. readings”, along with Team Topologies and a few others. Those books I would take to a desert island if someone asked me to build up a software facility from zero. :)What I really liked of the book is that it retakes the often discussed concept of software “engineering” and refines it to suit today’s needs. I always felt we need an “engineering approach”, but after the (gone) CMMI days, the term was always used more as a synonym to development rather than something to describe a professional, disciplined way to produce better software. I feel Dave’s book puts back engineering into development, but with a very pragmatic and realistic approach, derived from actual experience.When reading it, I felt a similar sensation to that I felt when I read Steve McConnell’s Code Complete and Rapid Development, many years ago. Though very different books, I think Dave’s also has that “handbook” nature. A book that you read once, but come back very often to look for ideas, concepts, etc. I hope Dave does not mind about my comparison.Thanks Dave!

Software Engineering as Engineering
I have always firmly believed that software engineering can and should be approached as, well, an engineering discipline. This book provides strong arguments that validate that belief and provides great practical advice on how to apply design engineering principles to software development. I highly recommend it to anyone involved in producing software, engineers and managers alike.

I loved this book, from start to end. All topics were well founded with a good amount of good examples. I understand that people expect more practical examples with real scenarios, but as stated by David, the book is not a recipe to achieve quality, but a foundation based on ingredients that are likely to lead your development to success. The examples given were simple, to illustrate and have a starting point to describe an idea. It’s not only about coding my fellow friends, it’s much more.

Sono rimasto abbastanza deluso da questo libro. Solite cose che si leggono ovunque riguardo al Software engineering. Molte ripetizioni di concetti e spesso sembra di aver già letto un paragrafo…Con questo prezzo, Avrei decisamente preferito un libro più coinciso e più approfondito.

He compares engineering allot with software development. One has an hypothesis and tries to confirm or reject it via tests and experiments on the software stack on hand.Overall it is a great read.