Suggested Books
Creativity and Problem Solving
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Suggested Books
Creativity and Problem Solving
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The material in this book is excellent, having been developed over a
number of years. In addition to wonderful, well written, patterns that
advise you on how to spread ideas, this books is full of stories that
help you to understand how to use the patterns effectively to influence people,
overcome roadblocks, and spread new ideas. Anyone who has new ideas to
share will benefit from this book including: Managers and Team
members, Professionals and Volunteers, people in industry and those in
community organizations.
If you work with or live with other people you should read this book. It is filled with information on understanding how communication gaps happen, and practical advice for resolving commuunications issues with other people. Most of the advice seems obvious, yet it if often the obvious that one needs to be reminded of. Among the extremely practical bits of information in the book is are dicussions of communication models (so that you can understand why communication might break down), and a chapter on how to write Service Level Agreements.
This book is about running requirements workshops and
more. Requirements workshops are an important tool for understanding
what you need to build. The techniques in this book will be useful in
many other group discussion settings, and will help you have more
productive meetings. The book discusses, among other things, roles in
workshops and decision rules (deciding how to decide). Each chapter
ends with a list of excellent references that you can use to probe
further on techniques. Anyone who is involved in group decision making
should own a copy of this book, read it, and refer back to it
often.
The principles that this book discusses: Release,
Collaboration Ensemble and Play are extremely relevant to
creating effective software teams. The principles are inspired
by observing how theatre companies work, but they also have a
basis in lean manufacturing. If you work as a
software developer or manager and have ever worked on a
theatre production (community theatre or at school) a light
will go on immediately. If you haven't The data that the
authors provide about lean manufacturing practices and
software development will convince you that there is a lot
that we can learn from this metaphor. The theatre examples will be
helpful in explaining how the principles work if you need to
communicate them to a manager who does not understand software
development. Buy this book and place it along side your books
on agile software development; you will want to read it and refer
back to it frequently.
This book discusses the psychology of optimal
experience, in other words, happiness. This books is
not a how-to book, but rather a why book. Reading this book
may give you great insights into how to enjoy all aspects of
your work and private life.
This is a unique book. It tells you about the
writers workshop process. The writers workshop process has its
origins in the creative writing community, and has been used
in the software patterns community. Richard Gabriel explains
how the process can also be used in other domains where
creative effort is involved, such as reviewing marketing
materials. I book for two reasons. First it provide great
insight into the creative process (as applied to anything) and
the values that are used in the writers workshop can benefit
anyone who creates things, even if they don't use the workshop
process. Second, if you do want to use writers workshops, this
book explains the hows and whys of them. I had been involved
in workshopping software patterns since 1995, and I though
that I pretty much understood what they were about. I learned
a lot reading this book. I recommend this book for anyone who
involved in the creative process(of any sort): Software
engineers, writers, teachers, and students.
This is an excellent book that explains very clearly how working longer hours with fewer resources in the quest for efficiency is counter productive for knowledge work, such as software development. This is a quick read, with many interesting stories to support the assertions that the book makes. The book is targeted at managers but also makes the point that leadership can happen at any level in the organization.
A classic book! This is the original text with
comments by Weinberg at the end of each chapter on what he'd
say differently now. It is easy to get past the examples
which revolve around batch systems, and realize that the core
ideas in the book are still valid.
This book has lots of good information for technical people at all levels. This book even has some good work-style and problem solving ideas for non-technical people.
Everyone consults, according to Weinberg, and you'll
find lots of useful stuff here, whether you are a full time employee,
contract employee, or someone who is considering
consulting.
This book talks about how you can keep yourself
focused on doing the right things. The text and examples are geared
to consultants, but most everyone will find these "tools"
useful.
The three books of the 4 volume Quality Software
Management series I've read
(Volume 1: Systems Thinking , Volume 2: First-Order
Measurement , and Volume 3: Congruent Action ) had really
good stuff on the people issues that affect software
development. Even if you are not a manager, these books
provide you with information on how to work more effectively
with team members and managers alike, and, understand, if not
justify some annoying management practices. (I haven't yet
read Volume 4: Anticipating Change , but there is probably
valuable stuff in there as well.)
Even if you are not a manager, the books in this
Quality Software Management Series provide you with
information on how to work more effectively with team members
and managers alike, and, understand, if not justify some
annoying management practices. 
Even if you are not a manager, the books in this
Quality Software Management Series provide you with information on how to work more effectively with team members and managers alike, and, understand, if not justify some annoying management practices. 
This book really made me think about my work, both day to day and career-wise. Covers practical approaches to improving culture, communication, and work environment. My favorite chapters were Avoiding Bad Working Environments and Working In a Poor Environment .
This book describes a framework for analyzing and
resolving ethical dilemmas. It does not provide you with answers, but
it does provide a great way of thinking about the issues and how to
resolve them. The text has examples based on real situations: from
life-and-death scenarios, to the more banal, but still
difficult.
An excellent resource on how to approach issues at work and at home. Should be required reading for everyone who is part of a team or a relationship.
This is one of the "classic" books on
negotiation, and still worth a read. This book is worth
reading if you need to negotiate anything
(requirements, assignments, schedules) as part of your
job. It also has some insights that will help in personal
relationships.
This book builds on Getting to Yes . If you find yourself in having trouble making headway in negitiation situations, it is worth a read. But read Getting to Yes first.
An easy to read, entertaining book that illustrates quite clearly what some people never really learn: you need to know what the problem is before looking for a solution.