Beginning POJOs: Lightweight Java Web Development Using Plain Old Java Objects in Spring, Hibernate, and Tapestry (Novice to Professional) Review

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Beginning POJOs: Lightweight Java Web Development Using Plain Old Java Objects in Spring, Hibernate, and Tapestry (Novice to Professional) ReviewMissourians -- residents of the "Show Me State" -- are sure to appreciate this unusual book on lightweight Java development with "Plain Old Java Objects." In a fast-paced 10 chapters, Brian Sam-Bodden builds a single complete application, all the way through. Believe it or else, he starts with a detailed design, then talks about fundamental tools like Eclipse and Ant, and before you know it he's implemented the persistence and business tiers. Screenshots and detailed instructions will help you get your environment installed and set up in no time.
The first five chapters of the book are astonishingly linear as the application is developed to this point, with each technology choice presented as a fait accompli. In this day of political correctness and cultural relativism, many authors bend over backwards to consider all the alternatives to every decision they make, and I felt that Sam-Bodden's approach was incredibly refreshing. Eclipse, Ant, Hibernate, EJB3 on JBoss. Take it or leave it.
I was therefore almost disappointed when, in Chapters 6 and 7, he considers several different alternative implementations of the business and presentation tiers. Still, showing how to use Tapestry and especially Spring offsets the raised eyebrows some of you might have on hearing that a book on POJOs was advocating using EJBs -- even though the radically reworked EJB3 specification does indeed let you use Plain Old Java Objects to implement the business layer.
From this point, the book gets more conventional, with the traditional tacked-on chapter about testing that nevertheless asks you to do testing as an integral part of development.
Although some of the technology choices and development approaches may stretch your personal definition of the term "lightweight," this is still the best book on end-to-end development of modern enterprise applications that I've seen. If you have a hint of the Missourian in you, and you'd like someone to show you how things are done, this book was written with you in mind.Beginning POJOs: Lightweight Java Web Development Using Plain Old Java Objects in Spring, Hibernate, and Tapestry (Novice to Professional) Overview
Beginning POJOs introduces you to open source lightweight web development using Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs) and the tools and frameworks that enable this. Tier by tier, this book guides you through the construction of complex but lightweight enterprise Java-based web applications. Such applications are centered around several major open source lightweight frameworks, including Spring, Hibernate, Tapestry, and JBoss (including the new lightweight JBoss Seam).

Additional support comes from the most successful and prevalent open-source tools: Eclipse and Ant, and the increasingly popular TestNG. This book is ideal if you're new to open source and lightweight Java. You'll learn how to build a complete enterprise Java-based web application from scratch, and how to integrate the different open source frameworks to achieve this goal. You'll also learn techniques for rapidly developing such applications. NOTE: The source code files to accompany this book are now hosted at https://github.com/bsbodden/techconf.


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Work Item Management with IBM Rational ClearQuest and Jazz: A Customization Guide Review

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Work Item Management with IBM Rational ClearQuest and Jazz: A Customization Guide ReviewVery well written guide that is easy to read and direct. I highly recommend for anybody that wants to learn tips and strategies that are effective and straightforward.Work Item Management with IBM Rational ClearQuest and Jazz: A Customization Guide OverviewThe Complete Guide to Managing Work Items and Workflow with IBM® Rational® ClearQuest® and IBM Rational Team Concert™Work items are the lifeblood of software and hardware development. They tell development teams exactly who is doing what, which issues are resolved, which remain unresolved, and which products are impacted. In large, team-based projects, however, managing work items can be difficult. Now, two IBM Rational experts show how to simplify and improve every aspect of work item management with IBM Rational ClearQuest and the powerful and collaborative Jazz™-based products: IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC) and IBM Rational Quality Manager.Drawing on extensive experience with IBM customers, the authors tightly link theory with proven best practices, offering implementation guidance, detailed examples, and complete solutions. They present innovative solutions, introduce advanced customization techniques, and walk step-by-step through every phase of workflow development, from requirements through maintenance. They conclude with a full chapter of sample applications and solutions, ranging from Collaborative Application Lifecycle Management to SLAs.Coverage includesUnderstanding work items and their elements

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IBM Rational Team Concert 2 Essentials Review

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IBM Rational Team Concert 2 Essentials ReviewI bought this book to help me figure out the RTC product since the IBM's own documentation is either buggy or lacking. After going over the book in the few sections I was a little disappointment on the explainations and examples the book gave. For example, the work item customization is very complex but some how the book 3 pages. There are 13 sections for work item customization and the book only went over 2 of them. I guess I was expecting a lot more from a "Essentials" book but I should have realized it probably was that in detail given the amount of total pages.IBM Rational Team Concert 2 Essentials OverviewWith their straightforward style, Suresh Krishna and TC Fenstermaker have put their years of experience and motivation into this practical guide that assists in finding an integrated approach to increased team productivity. The numerous tips, notes, and suggestions strengthen your grasp of fundamentals and the foundation upon which you are ready to build your customized Rational Team Concert application. Ample screenshots make sure that you get the configurations correct the first time. A real-world Book Manager Application walks you through all the core features of the Rational Team Concert during different phases of development and release. If you are a Project Manager or a Team Member, who would like to find an integrated approach to deal with modern software development challenges, you should read this book. Or if you are someone who likes to stay one step ahead in team management, you have got the right choice here.

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Data Modeling Made Simple: A Practical Guide for Business and IT Professionals, 2nd Edition Review

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Data Modeling Made Simple: A Practical Guide for Business and IT Professionals, 2nd Edition ReviewI think very highly of Data Modeling Made Simple (the first edition), so when this second edition came out I had great expectations - which were not only met but also exceeded. Although this second edition is more than twice the number of pages as the first edition, it is still an easy read.
Here are my favorite things about this book:
1.Clearly delivers on its ten objectives. Read the back cover and you will understand the key takeaways you will get after reading the book. After I read the book, I went back over each of these objectives and I was able to check each of these off as accomplished. Everything from justifying the model to building data models to assessing data models was knowledge I gleaned from the book. If you are interested in just one or a subset of these ten objectives, read the Read Me First section and it will reference the sections and chapters you need to read to meet your specific objective.
2.More examples more thoroughly presented. The first edition took a business card example from beginning to end. This edition further expands the business card example and adds several other examples including an ice cream example and many real world examples. The author uses spreadsheets to illustrate many modeling examples, and I too have found spreadsheets to be a very effective way to communicate data and business rules.
3.Data Model Scorecard. The first edition touched on the Scorecard which is the author's technique to reviewing a data model. This second edition goes into detail including providing the template which I can use on my modeling assignments to review my models.
4.Treating a dimensional model as more than just a physical data model. Many texts treat the dimensional as only a physical data model yet there is a business level that this book illustrates at both the subject area and logical levels.
5.Getting other Greats for free. Bill Inmon, Graeme Simsion, and Michael Blaha have all written chapters in this book. I have already starting using Simsion's technique of a diary on my assignments and found it very useful.
My only area for improvement would be to expand the book with more modeling conventions such as ORM and IDEF1X. There is a chapter on UML though that I did find informative. I question however if adding these extra notations would detract from the book's simplicity.
Overall, an excellent read that I would recommend to every business or techie that works with data.
Data Modeling Made Simple: A Practical Guide for Business and IT Professionals, 2nd Edition OverviewData Modeling Made Simple will provide the business or IT professional with a practical working knowledge of data modeling concepts and best practices. This book is written in a conversational style that encourages you to read it from start to finish and master these ten objectives:
Know when a data model is needed and which type of data model is most effective for each situation
Read a data model of any size and complexity with the same confidence as reading a book
Build a fully normalized relational data model, as well as an easily navigatable dimensional model
Apply techniques to turn a logical data model into an efficient physical design
Leverage several templates to make requirements gathering more efficient and accurate
Explain all ten categories of the Data Model Scorecard
Learn strategies to improve your working relationships with others
Appreciate the impact unstructured data has, and will have, on our data modeling deliverables
Learn basic UML concepts
Put data modeling in context with XML, metadata, and agile development


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Lean Architecture: for Agile Software Development Review

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Lean Architecture: for Agile Software Development ReviewWhen I was a C++ programmer in the early 90's Coplien's Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms was a source of interview material when looking for programmers. It's a good bet that this book may fill the same role for those looking to see if candidates for architect roles understand what it means to be an architect in a Lean or Agile Organization. This book dispels the myth that Agile and Architecture don't go together and explains the balance between Agile architecture and too much Big Up Front Design. This book emphasizes the importance of frequent collaboration between stakeholders in defining a good architecture and helps you to understand the importance of architecture to the success of agile projects. With code examples throughout, this book emphasizes that architecture and coding must go together. After describing some general principles of how architecture can add value to an agile project, the authors explain the Data Context, Interaction (DCI) architecture, which provides an framework for building lean architectures. My one minor complaint is that the transition between the general discussions of lean architecture and the focused discussion of DCI was a bit abrupt. But this was a minor distraction from an enjoyable and informative read. Rich with citations, places to go for more information, and historical context, this book will be useful for anyone who is struggling with how to build systems that need to support complicated user interactions (which could describe most non-trivial systems).Lean Architecture: for Agile Software Development OverviewMore and more Agile projects are seeking architectural roots as they struggle with complexity and scale - and they're seeking lightweight ways to do it
Still seeking? In this book the authors help you to find your own path
Taking cues from Lean development, they can help steer your project toward practices with longstanding track records
Up-front architecture? Sure. You can deliver an architecture as code that compiles and that concretely guides development without bogging it down in a mass of documents and guesses about the implementation
Documentation? Even a whiteboard diagram, or a CRC card, is documentation: the goal isn't to avoid documentation, but to document just the right things in just the right amount
Process? This all works within the frameworks of Scrum, XP, and other Agile approaches


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Beautiful Testing: Leading Professionals Reveal How They Improve Software (Theory in Practice) Review

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Beautiful Testing: Leading Professionals Reveal How They Improve Software (Theory in Practice) ReviewThis is a great book for testers, leads, and managers to read to get a better picture of where your testing process can bring value to your work. A few sections of this book didn't get me much value, but the vast majority of the book left me frantically scratching notes and folding corners of pages over. I read the book over a weekend and came away with a large number of major additions to my QA roadmap I use at work.
Kamran Khan's chapter on fuzz testing reinforced my ideas that choking your system with invalid parameters and input data is a tremendous way to shore up that system's stability. I also really enjoyed Lisa Crispin's and Alan Page's separate chapters, both of which emphasized value-driven, sensible approaches to test automation.
If you want an amazing story around how testing can directly impact the lives of those around you, read Karen Johnson's chapter "Software in Use." Johnson ties a visit to an Intensive Care Unit to work she'd done on equipment in that ICU - it's rare anyone sees that practical a link to work we do in this industry.
Other highly worthwhile chapters include the piece on Python's development process, the overview on TDD, Mozilla's regression testing philosophy, and others. The Python chapter, in particular, is a tremendous testament to how a rigorous testing philosophy can guarantee very solid releases even with a broad, distributed team of varying skills.
As my examples above point out, there's a great amount of broad-stroke value in the book; however, a wealth of smaller, critical points abound in various chapters as well. Some weren't phrased exactly like this, but I've taken away these other concept as well:
* Track the source of your bugs (test plans, exploratory, developer, etc.) and pay special attention to bugs found by customers. These "escapees" point to areas to shore up in your test plan.
* Mindmaps are a great way to brainstorm out your test plan or test areas.
* Use small tools like fuzzers to help create your baseline input data.
* 100% passing rates for your automated tests isn't reasonable. Investigating 100% of your failing tests to determine whether the specific failure matters is reasonable. (I already firmly believed this, but it was nice to see in print!)
* Using image comparison to check formatting.
This is one of the better books I've read this year, and it's absolutely worth adding to your shelf.
Beautiful Testing: Leading Professionals Reveal How They Improve Software (Theory in Practice) OverviewSuccessful software depends as much on scrupulous testing as it does on solid architecture or elegant code. But testing is not a routine process, it's a constant exploration of methods and an evolution of good ideas. Beautiful Testing offers 23 essays from 27 leading testers and developers that illustrate the qualities and techniques that make testing an art. Through personal anecdotes, you'll learn how each of these professionals developed beautiful ways of testing a wide range of products -- valuable knowledge that you can apply to your own projects. Here's a sample of what you'll find inside:

Microsoft's Alan Page knows a lot about large-scale test automation, and shares some of his secrets on how to make it beautiful
Scott Barber explains why performance testing needs to be a collaborative process, rather than simply an exercise in measuring speed
Karen Johnson describes how her professional experience intersected her personal life while testing medical software
Rex Black reveals how satisfying stakeholders for 25 years is a beautiful thing
Mathematician John D. Cook applies a classic definition of beauty, based on complexity and unity, to testing random number generators

All author royalties will be donated to the Nothing But Nets campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, a disease that kills millions of children in Africa each year. This book includes contributions from:

Adam Goucher
Linda Wilkinson
Rex Black
Martin Schröder
Clint Talbert
Scott Barber
Kamran Khan
Emily Chen
Brian Nitz
Remko Tronçon
Alan Page
Neal Norwitz
Michelle Levesque
Jeffrey Yasskin
John D. Cook
Murali Nandigama
Karen N. Johnson
Chris McMahon
Jennitta Andrea
Lisa Crispin
Matt Heusser
Andreas Zeller
David Schuler
Tomasz Kojm
Adam Christian
Tim Riley
Isaac Clerencia



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Practical API Design: Confessions of a Java Framework Architect Review

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Practical API Design: Confessions of a Java Framework Architect ReviewEnough said.
This and Effective Java by Bloch are the two books every Java programmer should have read. It will change the way you program and you'll be grateful for the change. The examples in this book are in Java but that's because they had to be in some language; I don't think any part of this book is specific to Java. If your code is consumed by other people, or even a future self, then this book will help you think through issues you may not have know you have. It did me.
In my opinion, this is those one of those once in a decade books that changes the game for anyone who reads it.
A totally mature, non-didactic work written by someone with that perfect combination of real-world experience, a high intellect, a no BS attitude, and humility.
This book is like getting a magical time telescope- you can see what the decisions you are making in your coding today will actually lead to in the future and what the inescapable consequences will be for you.
Actually, reading this book is a little like being put into the role of Scrooge being visited by the three ghosts of Christmas. You get to see what's going to happen to you because of your past and present actions before it happens. At it's heart it's a longitudinal study of how code is first consumed, abused and misused by other programmers and how those abuses become dependencies which determine what YOU, the code's author can and cannot do in future releases.
In a very small nutshell- totally innocent innocuous, completely legal and even recommended programming practices which you apply every day in your code can and will completely shut down any chance for your code to evolve in any rational way going forward in future releases. Why? Because you can't see the potential consequences of consumers of your code doing something you never thought they might do in ways you never meant for them to do it.
But here's a guy who did do those things and lived to pay the price.
For example, if you think that using interfaces (in Java) is usually the best way to program, then you might have a nasty surprise coming at you when other people (damn them!) actually start to program against your code.
When the book's over, you might be as happy as Scrooge that there's still time to change things before it's too late.
Like Bloch's Effective Java, the lessons in this book are so important that they're destined to become diffused throughout the general programming culture and become known to people who haven't even heard of the book. But can you wait until all that filters down to you through osmosis?
Practical API Design: Confessions of a Java Framework Architect OverviewThe definitive guide to API design, this book will be required reading for all designers and engineers involved with the development, testing, and maintenance of APIs.

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Configuration Management Best Practices: Practical Methods that Work in the Real World Review

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Configuration Management Best Practices: Practical Methods that Work in the Real World ReviewGreat book! It's not really technical, it doesn't have script examples, and doesn't enter into the use-this-tool vs. that-tool debate. It's not specific to a particular set of tools, which is great. The value of this book is that it focuses more on establishing approaches to SCM. Items include how to attack SCM problems, items to consider, and even how to approach things from a people perspective. Often we get so focused on the technical side we may miss the people side. I will be using what I've learned from this book.
Configuration Management Best Practices: Practical Methods that Work in the Real World OverviewSuccessfully Implement High-Value Configuration Management Processes in Any Development EnvironmentAs IT systems have grown increasingly complex and mission-critical, effective configuration management (CM) has become critical to an organization's success. Using CM best practices, IT professionals can systematically manage change, avoiding unexpected problems introduced by changes to hardware, software, or networks. Now, today's best CM practices have been gathered in one indispensable resource showing you how to implement them throughout any agile or traditional development organization. Configuration Management Best Practices is practical, easy to understand and apply, and fully reflects the day-to-day realities faced by practitioners. Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs thoroughly address all six "pillars" of CM: source code management, build engineering, environment configuration, change control, release engineering, and deployment. They demonstrate how to implement CM in ways that support software and systems development, meet compliance rules such as SOX and SAS-70, anticipate emerging standards such as IEEE/ISO 12207, and integrate with modern frameworks such as ITIL, COBIT, and CMMI. Coverage includesUsing CM to meet business objectives, contractual requirements, and compliance rules Enhancing quality and productivity through lean processes and "just-in-time" process improvement Getting off to a good start in organizations without effective CM Implementing a Core CM Best Practices Framework that supports the entire development lifecycle Mastering the "people" side of CM: rightsizing processes, overcoming resistance, and understanding workplace psychology Architecting applications to take full advantage of CM best practices Establishing effective IT controls and compliance Managing tradeoffs and costs and avoiding expensive pitfallsConfiguration Management Best Practices is the essential resource for everyone concerned with CM: from CTOs and CIOs to development, QA, and project managers and software engineers to analysts, testers, and compliance professionals.Praise for Configuration Management Best Practices"Understanding change is critical to any attempt to manage change. Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs's Configuration Management Best Practices presents fundamental definitions and explanations to help practitioners understand change and its potential impact."–Mary Lou A. Hines Fritts, CIO and Vice Provost Academic Programs, University of Missouri-Kansas City"Few books on software configuration management emphasize the role of people and organizational context in defining and executing an effective SCM process. Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs's book will give you the information you need not only to manage change effectively but also to manage the transition to a better SCM process."–Steve Berczuk, Agile Software Developer, and author of Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration"Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs succeed handsomely in producing an important book, at a practical and balanced level of detail, for this topic that often 'goes without saying' (and hence gets many projects into deep trouble). Their passion for the topic shows as they cover a wonderful range of topics–even culture, personality, and dealing with resistance to change–in an accessible form that can be applied to any project. The software industry has needed a book like this for a long time!"–Jim Brosseau, Clarrus Consulting Group, and author of Software Teamwork: Taking Ownership for Success"A must read for anyone developing or managing software or hardware projects. Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs are able to bridge the language gap between the myriad of communities involved with successful Configuration Management implementations. They describe practical, real world practices that can be implemented by developers, managers, standard makers, and even Classical CM Folk."–Bob Ventimiglia, Bobev Consulting"A fresh and smart review of today's key concepts of SCM, build management, and related key practices on day-to-day software engineering. From the voice of an expert, Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs offer an invaluable resource to success in SCM."–Pablo Santos Luaces, CEO of Codice Software"Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs have a gift for stimulating the types of conversation and thought that necessarily precede needed organizational change. What they have to say is always interesting and often important."–Marianne Bays, Business Consultant, Manager and Educator

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The Productive Programmer (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) Review

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The Productive Programmer (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) ReviewThis is a terrific book for boosting your productivity in two areas: how you work, and how you code.
The first section of the book, Mechanics, focuses on tools you can use to boost your productivity as you're working with your system. Ford launches off into an exploration of lots of little crazy tools that help you automate or ease repetitive tasks. You'll find lots of goodies from virtual desktops to shortcut tips/launchers, to using Ruby to script everything from splitting up SQL to automatically sorting your laundry and washing it for you.[1]
All these little tools and tricks add up to drastic decreases in the amount of friction you're forced to suffer through while doing your daily job. Cutting this friction lets you focus on the job at hand, instead of trying to bend your environment to your will.
The second section of the book, Practice, discusses ways to speed your development. There's an awful lot of goodness in this portion of the book, ranging from re-emphasizing critical aspects of object oriented programming, to object and method composition. Ford walks through a lot of great stories meant to get you to re-evaluate why you do things a certain way. The infamous Angry Monkeys story gets pulled out as an example, and Ford also concisely covers development principles like the Law of Demeter, Occam's Razon, and his Polyglot Programming meme.
The book's concise, amazingly well written, and a definite must-have for your bookshelf.
The Productive Programmer (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) OverviewAnyone who develops software for a living needs a proven way to produce it better, faster, and cheaper. The Productive Programmer offers critical timesaving and productivity tools that you can adopt right away, no matter what platform you use. Master developer Neal Ford not only offers advice on the mechanics of productivity--how to work smarter, spurn interruptions, get the most out your computer, and avoid repetition--he also details valuable practices that will help you elude common traps, improve your code, and become more valuable to your team. You'll learn to:
Write the test before you write the code
Manage the lifecycle of your objects fastidiously
Build only what you need now, not what you might need later
Apply ancient philosophies to software development
Question authority, rather than blindly adhere to standards
Make hard things easier and impossible things possible through meta-programming
Be sure all code within a method is at the same level of abstraction
Pick the right editor and assemble the best tools for the job

This isn't theory, but the fruits of Ford's real-world experience as an Application Architect at the global IT consultancy ThoughtWorks. Whether you're a beginner or a pro with years of experience, you'll improve your work and your career with the simple and straightforward principles in The Productive Programmer.


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Head First Software Development Review

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Head First Software Development ReviewSince becoming a Development Manager, this is the first book I've made required reading for the team. Good software development is NOT common sense. When confronted with something as complex as a software project, people tend to respond with panic (which the book calls the Big Bang) or massive attempts at control (the Waterfall method).
HFSD preaches Iterative Development without all the dogma of Scrum or XP. It leaves the controversial stuff to other books, focusing on what good developers pretty much agree on. The practices are easily adopted and flexible, although like all worthwhile things in the world, they take a lifetime to master.
There's a lot to like about this book. The other Head First guides are good, but the style really, really fits the material here ... maybe because development is really less about technology than it is about working with others.Head First Software Development Overview
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.

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Just Enough Software Architecture: A Risk-Driven Approach Review

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Just Enough Software Architecture: A Risk-Driven Approach ReviewThis a broad and deep book on all things software architecture except the architecting process (for process, one recommended read is "Process Software Architecting" by Eeles/Cripps). Several readerships will benefit from "Just Enough Software Architecture":
- As an experienced IT architect, I do not necessarily agree with everything in the book (this does not come as a surprise, as architects have opinions). That said, I certainly learned a lot that I can apply immediately on my projects and some of the more provocative statements challenge me to leave my comfort zone (or at least consider doing so).
- Junior architects can use the book both as a tutorial and as a reference when/while growing in their profession.
- Developers with a "who needs architects" mindset (hopefully) will understand architects and modelers much better after having read this book, and appreciate the value of archtecture.
Things I liked in particular:
- Overall vision and message of pragmatism sent
- The risk-driven approach increases chances to get accepted both in agile development and in more traditional architecture communities
- There is a lot of practical advice e.g. in Chapters 10, 11 and 15
- The author is in command of a large body of relevant related work (both industra and academia) and puts them in perspective adequately
- Editorial quality: structure, figures, command of the English language (some words and expressions a bit be hard to comprehend for non-native speaker)
Some room for improvements (2nd edition?):
- Not all metaphors and analogies work internationally, e.g. not all IT people are sports fans that follow baseball or know what a rookie is
- The connection between parts 1 and 2 could be a bit stronger, even if loose coupling generally is a good thing; e.g., some more backward references
In summary, I'd say Just Enough Software Architecture is a highly recommended read for every architect in touch with development reality and every developer with a desire to build complex systems that will stand the test of time.Just Enough Software Architecture: A Risk-Driven Approach OverviewThis is a practical guide for software developers, and different than other software architecture books. Here's why:
It teaches risk-driven architecting. There is no need for meticulous designs when risks are small, nor any excuse for sloppy designs when risks threaten your success. This book describes a way to do just enough architecture. It avoids the one-size-fits-all process tar pit with advice on how to tune your design effort based on the risks you face.
It democratizes architecture. This book seeks to make architecture relevant to all software developers. Developers need to understand how to use constraints as guiderails that ensure desired outcomes, and how seemingly small changes can affect a system's properties.
It cultivates declarative knowledge. There is a difference between being able to hit a ball and knowing why you are able to hit it, what psychologists refer to as procedural knowledge versus declarative knowledge. This book will make you more aware of what you have been doing and provide names for the concepts.
It emphasizes the engineering. This book focuses on the technical parts of software development and what developers do to ensure the system works not job titles or processes. It shows you how to build models and analyze architectures so that you can make principled design tradeoffs. It describes the techniques software designers use to reason about medium to large sized problems and points out where you can learn specialized techniques in more detail.
It provides practical advice. Software design decisions influence the architecture and vice versa. The approach in this book embraces drill-down/pop-up behavior by describing models that have various levels of abstraction, from architecture to data structure design.

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IBM Rational ClearCase 7.0: Master the Tools That Monitor, Analyze, and Manage Software Configurations Review

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IBM Rational ClearCase 7.0: Master the Tools That Monitor, Analyze, and Manage Software Configurations ReviewAs a long-time Clearcase user and administrator I found this book to be quite useful - maybe not as the ultimate guide to all things related to Clearcase, but certainly as an overview and reference to come back to.
For beginners, this book could serve as a great introduction to Clearcase. For the experienced Clearcase administrator, the book contains many tips and practical "how-to's" which may be new to many people, and will serve as a great reference. Multisite is also covered, but not in any great detail - still, enough to serve as a reference for basic usage and administration.
The authors have a very readable style of writing that you don't often find in this type of technical publications, which makes it easy to read long parts of the book in one go.
It should be noted, however, that the book only deals with base Clearcase - UCM is not covered at all, and it's quite clear that the authors have a very "anti-UCM" mindset. Also note that the book is written from a "command-line perspective", which may or may not suit everyone.
If you need to get into Clearcase quickly, then this book will serve as a great overview, and for the experienced user it will serve as a great reference.
IBM Rational ClearCase 7.0: Master the Tools That Monitor, Analyze, and Manage Software Configurations OverviewThis is a practical book with plenty of code examples for mastering ClearCase tools to monitor, analyze, and manage software configurations. If you are a developer who wants to use ClearCase for software development then this book is for you. This book is not for experts, but it will certainly challenge your technical skills. While ClearCase concepts and tools are presented for those unfamiliar with the tool, an ability to use the command line as well as some fluency with shell scripting will certainly be an advantage.

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Agile Java Development with Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse Review

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Agile Java Development with Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse ReviewI bought Agile Java Development with Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse just because I buy a lot of books. The idea behind it looked very nice. Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse form a very good development platform. I already knew this much. I had even used all of them, but I can always learn more.
The book is, according to the author, based on the development of an example project which is also a very good idea.
The problems begin when transforming those ideas into the reality of a book.
For starters, the book is poorly written/edited. The author gets ahead of himself a lot. "We'll see more on this later" - he says, and later can be a good eight to ten pages. Section and subsection titles seem to have random importance and chapters are strangely structured, as if you were listening to a presentation where the speaker hadn't bothered to order things.
"Now, I will explain this", "Now, I'll do that"... "Oh, and by the way, I hadn't said anything about this other thing. I'll mention it now even if it doesn't fit here".
The next *big* problem is the code. The book relies a lot on the code, but instead of inserting the code within context, it just comments a couple of selected lines and you're expected to follow along with the downloaded code on your computer.
This is a big turn off for me. I don't usually read books by the computer.
Then there's that thing about the author. Don't get me wrong. This is the first I've read from Mr. Hemrajani but I'm sure he's a great developer. But a good book, more so a book like this, should be about Agile Development, about Java, about Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse.
Sure, I do like an author who can express and convey his own views and opinions, his experience and know-how. But reading this, there's a feeling that this is all only about how _he_ does this or that. There're too many mentions on "this particular piece I wrote years ago about...", too many self-references and details which ultimately do not seem to be all that relevant.To sum it up: The idea is very good, and you may still get good bits from the book. But it *needs* a very thorough re-write and editing work.Agile Java Development with Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse OverviewAgile Java™ Development With Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse is a book about robust technologies and effective methods which help bring simplicity back into the world of enterprise Java development. The three key technologies covered in this book, the Spring Framework, Hibernate and Eclipse, help reduce the complexity of enterprise Java development significantly. Furthermore, these technologies enable plain old Java objects (POJOs) to be deployed in light-weight containers versus heavy-handed remote objects that require heavy EJB containers. This book also extensively covers technologies such as Ant, JUnit, JSP tag libraries and touches upon other areas such as such logging, GUI based debugging, monitoring using JMX, job scheduling, emailing, and more. Also, Extreme Programming (XP), Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD) and refactoring are methods that can expedite the software development projects by reducing the amount of up front requirements and design; hence these methods are embedded throughout the book but with just enough details and examples to not sidetrack the focus of this book. In addition, this book contains well separated, subjective material (opinion sidebars), comic illustrations, tips and tricks, all of which provide real-world and practical perspectives on relevant topics. Last but not least, this book demonstrates the complete lifecycle by building and following a sample application, chapter-by-chapter, starting from conceptualization to production using the technology and processes covered in this book. In summary, by using the technologies and methods covered in this book, the reader will be able to effectively develop enterprise-class Java applications, in an agile manner!

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