Books by Construx Authors

Steve McConnell’s award winning books and books by other authors at Construx Software.

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Code Complete, Second Edition

A practical handbook of software-construction practices. Updated for web development, object-oriented development, agile practices, and other modern construction issues. Topics include design, applying good techniques to construction, eliminating errors, planning, managing construction activities, and relating personal character to superior software.

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More Effective Agile: A Roadmap for Software Leaders

The latest book from from Steve McConnell, award-winning author of Code Complete and Software Estimation, distills real-world experience with hundreds of companies into an easy-to-read guide to the modern Agile practices that work best.

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Rapid Development

Slow development is reported to be the greatest problem facing the software industry today, but some organizations are developing rapidly. Researchers have found 10-to-1 differences in productivity between different companies within the same industries. Rapid Development tells the reader what is needed to move toward the “10” side of that 10-to-1 ratio.

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Software Project Survival Guide (SPSG)

This book is responsive to the problem that many people in the software industry are thrust into positions in which they are given responsibility for the outcome of a software project but are not given any formal or informal training in how to make that happen. SPSG provides an introduction to the steps that successful software projects follow that can be read by both technical and nontechnical readers.

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Professional Software Development

Software development can be predictable, controllable, economical, and manageable. Software is not usually developed that way, but it can be developed that way. Professional Software Development is about the emerging profession of software engineering—and professional software practices that support economical creation of high-quality software.

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Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art

This book is responsive to the widespread problems the software industry has experienced in creating meaningful cost and schedule estimates. Software estimation is not as hard or mysterious as many people think, but the knowledge of how to create effective estimates has not been well publicized. It provides a comprehensive set of tips and heuristics that software developers, technical leads, and project managers can apply to create more accurate estimates.

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Return on Software

Maximizing the return on your software Investment is about making choices: software technical choices in a business context. It helps software professionals appreciate the business consequences of the decisions they make. This book is a valuable reference for making the important decisions the typical software organization faces both today and down the road.