Head First Software Development: A Learner's Companion to Software Development

Head First Series

by Dan Pilone, Russ Miles

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 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.

Genres: Programming, Computer Science, Software, Nonfiction, Reference, Technical, Technology

495 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure having an opinion about this book matters as much as its usefulness. There is a wealth of excellent information and resources in this book even if it is slightly outdated.

I don't recommend reading this book as an electronic edition. I found it incredibly difficult to read on the kindle and used my laptop to finish it. Also, there are exercises in the book the reader is not able to do.

[gramakri · Rating 3 out of 5]

The software development approach described in this book is primarily based on Agile development principles and the Scrum framework (though not explicitly mentioned as such). It also introduces the concepts underlying technical practices like Test Driven Development (TDD) and Continuous Integration (CI) in a very elegant manner using a single case study , code snippets, illustrations and exercises.
For more details about this book visit
http://www.rgopinath.com/2012/11/18/b...

[Saurabh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a very easy to understand and a fun insight into the Agile Methodology - and at the same time refraining from actually calling Agile.

I found the first couple of chapters where they discussed about User stories, tasks and burn down graphs useful. After that, I was already familiar with most of the concepts (TDD, Bug reports, etc) and so didn't find those chapters that appealing.

Overall, an excellent book if you are going to be new to the s/w development process.

[Stevie Roach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be an excellent introduction to the art of managing a software product. Everything is very clearly explained, the examples are good, and they actually address real-world concerns. The Head First series in general is an outstanding approach to real learning. As an added bonus, it makes my opinion of my school much higher since the professor actually used this as a textbook.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overall review of development tools and practices to manage a software project. It looks a little juvenile with the format, but it makes it easy to read quickly and take in a lot of information. (It is O'Reilly after all).

[Topilno]

Creating Web Pages for Dummies

[Marek Pawlowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Świetna książka jeśli ktoś chciałby poznać jak współcześnie wytwarza się oprogramowanie w większości softwarehouse’ów na świecie. Świetnie został opisany proces w jaki zarządza się programistami w SCRUMIE (nawet jeśli samo to słowo nie pada na łamach tej książki). Jedynie czego brakuje tej książce to zwrócenie większej uwagi na postać testera. Dodanie tej osoby do procesu znacząco modyfikuje sam development. Tak czy owak, książka warta uwagi.

This is a really great book if someone wants to know how people nowadays create software in most of software houses in the world. The process how you administer the programers in SCRUM (even if this word is never mentioned on the pages of this book) is very well shown. The only thing that is missing is the role of a tester in such projects. Adding the tester to the process significantly modify the whole development. Nevertheless this book is worth to read.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good intro to Software Development Process. It was easy to follow and several case studies that helped illustrate what was presented. It was a good book to read for our grad class. It was a good review for me and I learned quite a bit, it completed the Python coding project we had to complete for class.

[Ahmed Kamel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good kickstart

[Janet Homes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for beginners. Easy to read and understand. Highly recommended for anyone interested in learning software development.

[Luke Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very pertinent to my current role. It also tends to follow the Agile methodology. Liked the read.

[Mehri Abdukodirova · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is definitely a brain-friendly guide for those who are just starting in the field of software development. But for someone who has some fundamental skills it will definitely be a boring read. That's the reason I put 4 stars even through it's a good book. It should have stated the level of audience the book is intended for. Meanwhile, it's not a bad book

[Tom Spruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me from a college programmer to...at least a junior programmer. Being pro takes experience. While it is a gentle introduction, it does a wonderful job of showing you what the landscape of software development looks like. Now all these software tools I see used in open source projects (like CI, code coverage, etc.) make sense. I can finally connect the dots!

[Daniel Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's slightly ironic, I think, for a book that teaches the agile method of software development, to, er, teach it the 'big bang' or 'waterfall' method... *cheeky grin* Still, this book is a pretty good way of learning it, so don't let my snide little comments put you off.

[Yutaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

ユニークな図と登場人物による会話を交えながら、アジャイル開発について紹介。アジャイルの全容を知るには十分な内容。エクササイズなどはてきとうに、ざっくり読みました。

[Mr. Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think they had some trouble filling out the pages. Was ok.

[Mila Ley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Книга которая 100% необходима в физическом печатном виде. Затягивает и превращается в веселую игру и вся полезная и практичная информация легко усваивается, это очень здорово. 5+

[Vinit]

Nice weekend read which explains an entire SDLC. Quick refresher on various things that a developer should take care of while planning a new project and how to build software by breaking it down into various sub-projects.