The Clean Coder: A Code Of Conduct For Professional Programmers

Description

Programmers who endure and succeed amidst swirling uncertainty and nonstop pressure share a common attribute: They care deeply about the practice of creating software. They treat it as a craft. They are professionals.

In The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers, legendary software expert Robert C. Martin introduces the disciplines, techniques, tools, and practices of true software craftsmanship. This book is packed with practical advice - about everything from estimating and coding to refactoring and testing. It covers much more than technique: It is about attitude. Martin shows how to approach software development with honor, self-respect, and pride; work well and work clean; communicate and estimate faithfully; face difficult decisions with clarity and honesty; and understand that deep knowledge comes with a responsibility to act.

Readers will learn

* What it means to behave as a true software craftsman
* How to deal with conflict, tight schedules, and unreasonable managers
* How to get into the flow of coding, and get past writer's block
* How to handle unrelenting pressure and avoid burnout
* How to combine enduring attitudes with new development paradigms
* How to manage your time, and avoid blind alleys, marshes, bogs, and swamps
* How to foster environments where programmers and teams can thrive
* When to say No - and how to say it
* When to say Yes - and what yes really means

Great software is something to marvel at: powerful, elegant, functional, a pleasure to work with as both a developer and as a user. Great software isn't written by machines. It is written by professionals with an unshakable commitment to craftsmanship. The Clean Coder will help you become one of them - and earn the pride and fulfillment that they alone possess.

Contents :

Foreword xiii

Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxiii

About the Author xxix

On the Cover xxxi

Pre-Requisite Introduction 1

Chapter 1: Professionalism 7

Be Careful What You Ask For 8

Taking Responsibility 8

First, Do No Harm 11

Work Ethic 16

Bibliography 22

Chapter 2: Saying No 23

Adversarial Roles 26

High Stakes 29

Being a Team Player 30

The Cost of Saying Yes 36

Code Impossible 41

Chapter 3: Saying Yes 45

A Language of Commitment 47

Learning How to Say Yes 52

Conclusion 56

Chapter 4: Coding 57

Preparedness 58

The Flow Zone 62

Writer's Block 64

Debugging 66

Pacing Yourself 69

Being Late 71

Help 73

Bibliography 76

Chapter 5: Test Driven Development 77

The Jury Is In 79

The Three Laws of TDD 79

What TDD Is Not 83

Bibliography 84

Chapter 6: Practicing 85

Some Background on Practicing 86

The Coding Dojo 89

Broadening Your Experience 93

Conclusion 94

Bibliography 94

Chapter 7: Acceptance Testing 95

Communicating Requirements 95

Acceptance Tests 100

Conclusion 111

Chapter 8: Testing Strategies 113

QA Should Find Nothing 114

The Test Automation Pyramid 115

Conclusion 119

Bibliography 119

Chapter 9: Time Management 121

Meetings 122

Focus-Manna 127

Time Boxing and Tomatoes 130

Avoidance 131

Blind Alleys 131

Marshes, Bogs, Swamps, and Other Messes 132

Conclusion 133

Chapter 10: Estimation 135

What Is an Estimate? 138

PERT 141

Estimating Tasks 144

The Law of Large Numbers 147

Conclusion 147

Bibliography 148

Chapter 11: Pressure 149

Avoiding Pressure 151

Handling Pressure 153

Conclusion 155

Chapter 12: Collaboration 157

Programmers versus People 159

Cerebellums 164

Conclusion 166

Chapter 13: Teams and Projects 167

Does It Blend? 168

Conclusion 171

Bibliography 171

Chapter 14: Mentoring, Apprenticeship, and Craftsmanship 173

Degrees of Failure 174

Mentoring 174

Apprenticeship 180

Craftsmanship 184

Conclusion 185

Appendix A: Tooling 187

Tools 189

Source Code Control 189

IDE/Editor 194

Issue Tracking 196

Continuous Build 197

Unit Testing Tools 198

Component Testing Tools 199

Integration Testing Tools 200

UML/MDA 201

Conclusion 204

Index 205