Karl Wiegers

Experience is a powerful teacher, but it is also slow and painful. Software practitioners can't afford to make every mistake others have suffered. This book helps you compress your learning curve—and bypass much of the pain—by absorbing lessons from others who have served in the trenches before you.

From my 50+ years of experience with software and drawing on more than 25 years of helping software teams succeed in nearly 150 organizations, I present 60 lessons you can apply to projects… Show more

Experience is a powerful teacher, but it is also slow and painful. Software practitioners can't afford to make every mistake others have suffered. This book helps you compress your learning curve—and bypass much of the pain—by absorbing lessons from others who have served in the trenches before you.

From my 50+ years of experience with software and drawing on more than 25 years of helping software teams succeed in nearly 150 organizations, I present 60 lessons you can apply to projects, regardless of the application domain, technology, or development lifecycle. Highly pragmatic and illustrated with more than 100 true-story experiences, these principles, perspectives, and practices have proven valid for decades, and they will remain relevant for many years to come.

"Software Development Pearls" covers multiple crucial domains of project success: requirements, design, project management, culture and teamwork, quality, and process improvement. Each chapter suggests several "First Steps" and "Next Steps" to help you begin applying its content immediately—and begin developing products more successfully. Show less

Have you ever noticed how many products appear to be designed by someone who has never used a product of that kind before? Nearly everyone has encountered websites, software apps, cars, appliances, and other products that made them wonder what the designers were thinking.

"The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things" presents more than 160 examples of products that violate 9 fundamental design principles, along with suggestions for correcting many of the flawed user interfaces and other… Show more

Have you ever noticed how many products appear to be designed by someone who has never used a product of that kind before? Nearly everyone has encountered websites, software apps, cars, appliances, and other products that made them wonder what the designers were thinking.

"The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things" presents more than 160 examples of products that violate 9 fundamental design principles, along with suggestions for correcting many of the flawed user interfaces and other design problems. These examples of thoughtless design reveal 70 specific lessons that designers ought to heed as they craft the user experience.

You'll also see many products that exhibit particularly thoughtful designs, the kinds of products that surprise and delight users. The book describes numerous specific practices for enhancing product usability through usage-centered design strategies.

Whether you're a new or experienced designer, a product development manager, or a thoughtful and curious consumer, you'll find "The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things" engaging, informative, and insightful. Show less

"Successful Business Analysis Consulting" shares pretty much everything I've learned after working for more than 21 years as an independent consultant. If you have questions about setting prices, negotiating agreements, dealing with difficult clients, partnering with other consultants, or generating revenue while you sleep, this book has answers. Whether you're just getting started or hoping to grow your business, "Successful Business Analysis Consulting" offers an abundance of practical advice… Show more

"Successful Business Analysis Consulting" shares pretty much everything I've learned after working for more than 21 years as an independent consultant. If you have questions about setting prices, negotiating agreements, dealing with difficult clients, partnering with other consultants, or generating revenue while you sleep, this book has answers. Whether you're just getting started or hoping to grow your business, "Successful Business Analysis Consulting" offers an abundance of practical advice for BA, PM, and other IT consultants. Show less

When forensic sculptor Jessica Sanford of Portland, Oregon, completes a forensic facial reconstruction on unidentified remains found in a forest grave, she discovers that she has a shocking personal connection to the victim. Jessica is then driven to identify the victim, to confirm their relationship, and to deliver justice for her death.

Jessica cleverly explores connections from her past in her quest for the victim's identity. Once she understands her link to the victim, Jessica finds… Show more

When forensic sculptor Jessica Sanford of Portland, Oregon, completes a forensic facial reconstruction on unidentified remains found in a forest grave, she discovers that she has a shocking personal connection to the victim. Jessica is then driven to identify the victim, to confirm their relationship, and to deliver justice for her death.

Jessica cleverly explores connections from her past in her quest for the victim's identity. Once she understands her link to the victim, Jessica finds herself more immersed in this case than in anything she has done before. Those involved in the apparent homicide are still out there—and Jessica intends to find them. Her relationships, her career, and her life are at risk as she attempts to reconstruct the victim's last days.

Not just about uncovering a crime and hunting the suspects, The Reconstruction is also about a young woman's search for her own identity. Jessica is a strong, independent woman who strives to balance her career, her passions, and her social life. The reader accompanies Jessica as she applies all of her skills and all of her smarts to try to solve the mystery of a lifetime. Show less

Co-authored with Joy Beatty, this award-winning book is a comprehensive textbook on requirements development and management, focusing on effective practices that are useful on any project. A major enhancement over the second edition, this edition includes new chapters on requirements for agile projects, data requirements, requirements reuse, and writing excellent requirements. Other new chapters describe effective requirements practices for various classes of projects: embedded systems… Show more

Co-authored with Joy Beatty, this award-winning book is a comprehensive textbook on requirements development and management, focusing on effective practices that are useful on any project. A major enhancement over the second edition, this edition includes new chapters on requirements for agile projects, data requirements, requirements reuse, and writing excellent requirements. Other new chapters describe effective requirements practices for various classes of projects: embedded systems, outsourced projects, enhancement and replacement projects, packaged solution projects, business analytics, and business automation projects. Key topics such as business objectives, quality attribute requirements, and elicitation techniques have all been beefed up. Show less

You can probably remember conversations in which someone said just one sentence to you that you've remembered the rest of your life. I realized that we learn many powerful life lessons from such small conversations and everyday experiences. Although we learn our life lessons in different ways, they are pretty much globally applicable to everyone. "Pearls from Sand" describes 37 of the important lessons I've learned in my life. Each chapter states the lesson, tells how I learned it, describes… Show more

You can probably remember conversations in which someone said just one sentence to you that you've remembered the rest of your life. I realized that we learn many powerful life lessons from such small conversations and everyday experiences. Although we learn our life lessons in different ways, they are pretty much globally applicable to everyone. "Pearls from Sand" describes 37 of the important lessons I've learned in my life. Each chapter states the lesson, tells how I learned it, describes how I've applied it, and suggests how you can apply it in your own life. Show less

Project initiation is the process of formally conceiving, approving, and launching a new project. This book describes many actions that lay the foundation for a successful project. Both experienced and novice project managers will find the practices described here to be valuable. Topics covered include: defining project success criteria and product release criteria, project chartering, risk management, lessons learned and project retrospectives, metrics, and many others. Each chapter includes… Show more

Project initiation is the process of formally conceiving, approving, and launching a new project. This book describes many actions that lay the foundation for a successful project. Both experienced and novice project managers will find the practices described here to be valuable. Topics covered include: defining project success criteria and product release criteria, project chartering, risk management, lessons learned and project retrospectives, metrics, and many others. Each chapter includes several practice activities and worksheets to help you begin applying the techniques immediately. Show less

This book addresses many questions that requirements analysts ask over and over again, most of which are not covered well in the current books on software requirements engineering. Some of these thorny problems don't have perfect solutions, but the book offers the practicing analyst practical options and ways to select the best approach in a given situation. Chapters cover topics of particular interest to managers, points of confusion around the use case technique, how to optimize your customer… Show more

This book addresses many questions that requirements analysts ask over and over again, most of which are not covered well in the current books on software requirements engineering. Some of these thorny problems don't have perfect solutions, but the book offers the practicing analyst practical options and ways to select the best approach in a given situation. Chapters cover topics of particular interest to managers, points of confusion around the use case technique, how to optimize your customer involvement, different ways to represent requirements information, and some key issues regarding requirements management. Several chapters provide a wealth of advice on how to actually write excellent software requirements, at an appropriate level of detail and without unnecessary design constraints. As more and more companies outsource their software development, the need for high-quality requirements is increasing. This book can help any analyst elicit, document, and manage better requirements Show less

This is a comprehensive and very accessible guide to performing inspections and other types of peer reviews of any project deliverable. Peer reviews are among the most effective techniques available for finding errors in requirements, designs, code, tests, and other software project deliverables. The book covers the inspection process in some detail, but it also describes a variety of other review types that cover a spectrum of formality. Several chapters address the cultural and interpersonal… Show more

This is a comprehensive and very accessible guide to performing inspections and other types of peer reviews of any project deliverable. Peer reviews are among the most effective techniques available for finding errors in requirements, designs, code, tests, and other software project deliverables. The book covers the inspection process in some detail, but it also describes a variety of other review types that cover a spectrum of formality. Several chapters address the cultural and interpersonal aspects of peer reviews, installing a review program in an organization, and recording and using inspection metrics. The emphasis is on a simple, practical approach to these important quality techniques that any organization can apply. Show less

A healthy software engineering culture is one in which managers and practitioners share a commitment to building quality software through the application of effective and sensible software processes. The book describes 14 cultural principles that I think are important in guiding how software is built. If you share my belief that these principles are important, you'll apply technical and managerial practices that I think will lead to superior software.