In Debugging the Development Process, Maguire describes the sometimes controversial but always effective practices that enabled his software teams at Microsoft to develop high-quality software - on schedule. With the refreshing candor reviewers admired in Writing Solid Code, Maguire talks about what did and what didn't work at Microsoft and tells you how to energize software teams to work effectively - and to enjoy their work; why you might want to kick your star programmer off your team; how to avoid corporate snares and overblown corporate processes; which tiny changes produce major results; how to deliver on schedule and without overwork; how to pull twice the value out of everything you do; how to get your team going on a creative roll; and how to raise the average programmer level at your company.

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The book mainly explains the obvious (although too often ignored) practices that helps your development project: stay focused, avoid distractions, avoid interruptions, avoid wasting time, avoid unnecessary meetings (meetings are interruptions and far too often a waste of time), fix bugs early. The book has some stories to explain the above practices. But, the book has no hard facts to help you fight for the above practices in case you have a "pointy haired" boss.

In my opinion "Rapid Development" by Steve McConnel is a far better book. "Rapid development" has all the hard facts that "Debugging the development process" lacks. "Rapid development" also describes more practices and has a broader view of the development project that "Debugging the development process".

16 of 20 found the following review helpful:

Definitely worth reading, but not awesome.Jun 03, 2000
By From_Plano_TX "a_customer_from_plano"
This book is NOT about project management, it is about 1st line supervision. Of course, 1st line supervisors interface with management and this book addresses that some, but that doesn't address project management from a manager's view, just a supervisor's. You need to know who this book is for. It is for an experienced supervisor, someone who can spot the occasional errors. In this case the errors are strongly held but misplaced opinions. One error the author made was to call programmers lazy who read source code as part of a job (p. 50). That's a foolish statement. If you've ever debugged someone else's undocumented code, you have to read the source to even figure out what the code is supposed to do. He praises people who make snap decisions (p. 20). That's silly. It's better than no decision, but certainly not praiseworthy. And on pp. 113-115 he says to "Give Experts the Boot." Here he's parroting the "we need generalists" mantra that became popular about 5 or 6 or 7 years ago. I've seen a very noticible drop in quality all over the industry. One example, when one company I worked at got rid of their Ph.D. from MIT who did thermal analysis and replaced him with a non-degreed mechanical designer who was trying to run thermal analysis software, not even having a clue on the intricacies of thermal analysis and design. At this point the thermal design of their computers became a joke. Maybe it would work and maybe it wouldn't. Don't get me wrong. The author has a number of good points. E.g., fix bugs ASAP (p. 128), don't let them pile up for later. Set your coding priorities (pp. 17-19), and do proper postmortems (pp. 78-80). Very good book, but you must beware of his errors. If you are young, read this again after 10 to 15 years.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Absolutely WonderfulMay 13, 1999

Steve talks about all of the problems I've found common in the software development industry that stress out the development team. His discussions of problems he has faced in his own development efforts provide valuable tips on handling the pressures from management, staff and deadlines. I highly recommend this book for anyone who assumes a leadership role, not just in the software industry, but in all industries where pressure and deadlines exist.

5 of 6 found the following review helpful:

Excellent!!Feb 02, 2002
By Lee
This is a good book on software development process improvements. Steve talks about practical strategies for staying focused, hitting ship dates and building solid teams. These strategies are common-sense but are often ignored by managers, project manager and technical leads.

Chapter 1 talks about "laying the groundwork" -- priorities work, establish goals, coding priorites. How true this is ... how often have we started development when we are unsure of what the management wants to achieve out of it.

Some of the other strategies include having 40 hour week(hmm ... reminds me of Extreme Programming) and about the danger of having working 12 hours per day. He also spoke about ensuring personal growth in dividuals, and how it directly helps the company.

This book is written in simple english, straight to the point. To everyone doing software development, this is a must-read!!!

5 of 6 found the following review helpful:

Good Book, Lacks New IdeasMar 31, 2000
By David A. Carlson "0xCAFED00D"
Overall this is a good book that is an easy quick read. All of the ideas presented though are common sense. That being said, I have worked for enough organizations where the common sense presented in this book has been ignored. For those of you with a manager who does not believe in writing bug free quality code, buy him this book! It's even possible that he or she might understand what you are talking about when you say you hate status meetings.

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