The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World

by Christopher Duncan

Book Overview

The Career Programmer explains how you can work within the existing system to solve deadline problems and regain control of the development process. The author provides proven, practical, and hands-on solutions designed to work even when confronted with the political and chaotic realities of the business environment. Issues are addressed from the points of view of both the programmer and project manager, and steps are shown in all perspectives,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590596242
• ISBN13: 9781590596241
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A good eye-opener to the programming business

This book isn't a normal technical book; it even isn't a technical book at all, but a non-technical book for programmers and a good one in my humble opinion.This book isn't also a great literature prose, nothing of this actually. This book is direct, uses to the maximum the conversational style and an enjoyable and fun digestible prose, so isn't dry and boring to read.Check the table of contents to see what I mean ;-)This isn't a book that focuses on state of the art UML designs and patterns , nothing on these matters , actually.This book talks about human beings , a specific kind of human being, nevertheless ;-)This book describes the state of affairs not only on Corporate America where the author work, but it also applies to every single country that has a software house or a programming department.This book talks about survival and fighting for your destiny, the aim: to survive, to be in control of your destiny and to have fun programming.The title says it all: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World, and in this light, the book accomplishes his desired feat: helping us with background, techniques, new ways of thinking, attaining realistic deadlines, having a life, this and more the friendly author talks about. Although I have some minor programming experience due to my 4 years on this programming business, I think I passed all the book, shaking my head in accordance with the author's descriptions of real work situations, insane managers and insane corporate politics that I already passed (and I'm still passing it...) in a similar manner. Even now that I'm more experienced, the author have some really good ideas to employ on my daily work, that I'm sure I'll adapt for my personal use ! Summing up, the book is a great tool of preparation for a novice programmer, a good and refreshing read for the seasoned programmer and definitely the book have some good techniques to be used in this programming business.Another great plus is the fact that the author is a nice, approchable and friendly fellow author/programmer if you want discuss any topic with him.

Dilbert with suggestions for improvements!

As developers, we often go with the corporate flow and take for granted all the sensible techniques we learnt as students. This book will make you rethink and remember all the crazy comments made by our managers.Similar to the way the Dilbert books mocked corporate culture and behavior, this book provides the useful tips to improve our surrounding environment.The first few chapters give scenarios for popular misconceptions such as why a programmer will not code all day, illogical decisions made by executives, vague requirements and seeing yourself as an enemy. After you read about the story about the networking solution using floppy disks, we are sure you will be able to relate it to your own experiences. Many of the answers are based on playing corporate politics and soft non-technical skills.The book covers the author's personal experiences as he talks through the various issues. This book is compulsory reading for any new programmer and a necessary wake up call for professional developers.

A really good and unique book

...It's actually quite a depressing read in many ways as it quickly disposes of all the illusions many of us have about our chosen field of work, but it always does so in an amusing and well writen way.And more importantly it gives solid advise about what to do about it. How to make the company work more for you rather than against you. But always in a professional way, and still in the interests of the company. It's particularly good as an antidote against all those methodologies which sound great on paper but don't stand a chance of being implemented in most companies. I've seen plenty of books about how to succeed in management, and sales, and marketing, but never one about how to succeed as a programmer - in the sense of making your life better and more productive, rather than just the technical aspects.I highly recommend this book.

Wish I read this before my last project

Being the sheltered geek that I am as I started my first project as project manager thinking that I was about to create the greatest masterpiece of my career, I was totally blind-sided by the agendas of management. I was heads-down creating and oblivious to the politics going on around me.This book is a heads-up. There are some techniques here, but mostly tells of situations and people to watch out for. Forewarned is forearmed.

Primer for the Uninitiated

From the very first chapter, I found myself nodding my head in agreement and chuckling about the inane situations Chris has encountered in Corporate America. Although he and I come from different worlds (Chris from software development and me from marketing/sales) his commentaries on the pitfalls, obstacles, and twisted logic of how Corporate America works is insightful and offers valuable tips on how to navigate potentially damaging confrontations. This is a humorous, down-to-earth, practical guide that can be used by anyone (technical or non-technical) in coping with some truly wierd situations that arise. "The Career Programmer" is a quick read and definately deserves a second reading. If the truth be told, I sped through my first sitting with the book because I wanted to find out what happened to the chihuahua. Well done.