Predictable Software Development (and the tools are free)

All information here is copyright 2001 by Matthew Von-Maszewski
... this is a work in progress ...

Proposal to Publisher

I propose to write a book for lead software developers and software development managers. The book will present a sample software development department that is an implementation of industry standard development practices using tools freely available. I will present six basic practices that everyone in a development department should understand. The presentation will discuss not only the tools but also how each individual contributor, Linux and/or Windows based, would interact with the tools as part of their daily activities. The department employees should benefit both individually and as a whole as their development practices become more open and predictable.

Prior literature in this area is handicapped. The books cannot give actual implementation plans because typically the software tools are expensive. So the books are limited to either pure development theory, showing one vendor's expensive tools suite, or reliving a massive effort of a company such as Hewlett Packard. Each reader is left trying to find a way to apply and implement the book, or is required to purchase the presented software. Once money enters the picture, target managers must justify the expense and ensure that the software exactly meets their needs. Our book would not be hindered by cost. The tools are free. Who cares if they are not the perfect long term solution? Once a good development practice is established, a development department can carefully select vendor tools at their leisure. Using our book implies no cost, yet gives an exact, incremental plan for both the manager and the staff.

It is important to note that I scale the industry practices. Requirements Management is a good example. IEEE and SEI presentations on the topic prescribe elaborate documents. Our book presents managing basic requirements through the Bugzilla bug tracking system. This adaptation makes requirements gathering and management much more reasonable and cost effective for our target audience.

The target audience is large for two reasons. First, it consists of every small to medium software development group, each of which is today re-inventing the software development process partially learned elsewhere by one of its employees. Second, this book equally applies to Windows development houses as well as to Linux houses ... and the fast growing dual development groups. Yes, the actual tools sit on a Linux server. But all the interactions are through command line and web interfaces. These are equally available in Windows and Linux. The book has the potential to become a standard reference within the software development community.

Chapters
1. Introduction
2. Preparing for Success
3. Place to Stuff Your Stuff: CVS
   source code management
4. Place to Strut Your Stuff: Apache
   general document management
5. Thoughts About Your Stuff: Bugzilla
   issue (bug) management
6. Plans for Your Stuff: Bugzilla II
   requirements/expectations management
7. Stuff Needs to Compile: gnu make
   configuration management
8. Funny, The Stuff Used to Work: unittester
   unit tests
9. How Is The Stuff Doing: mySQL & gdchart
   progress presentation
10. Beyond This Stuff:
    next steps

Schedule

This is my first book. I am open to your experience in revising this schedule and expectations.

I estimate the book is a 22 calendar week effort. Here is how I derived the number:

• I previously average about 2 pages per hour for good quality development documents.
• Similarly, I typically spend about 2 hours on the first pass of an illustration.
• Today I assume 20 work hours per week on this project. This may increase depending upon your writing contract.
• 30 pages per chapter on average, therefore 15 hours for good first draft, plus illustrations. Round this to 1.5 calendar weeks per chapter.
• 10 chapters at 1.5 weeks per chapter is 15 calendar weeks for first draft.
• Guess 7 weeks of edits after reviews.
• Blue line ready for print as early as 22 weeks.

Initial Bibliography