Why should you, a competent software developer or programmer, care about your own brand? After all, it’s not like you're an actor or musician. In fact, as Success in Programming: How to Gain Recognition, Power, and Influence Through Personal Branding demonstrates in many ways, it’s never been more important for you to think about yourself as a brand. Doing so will provide rocket fuel for your career. You’ll find better jobs and become the "go-to" person in various situations. You’ll become known for your expertise and leadership, and you'll find it easier to strike out on your own. People will seek out your advice and point of view. You’ll get paid to speak, write, and consult. What’s not to like about becoming a rock star developer? The good news—as Mozilla’s senior technology evangelist, Frédéric Harper, writes—is that it’s never been easier to improve your skills, stand out, share more quickly, and grow your network. This book provides the tools you need to build your reputation and enhance your career, starting right now. You'll learn what personal branding is and why you should care about it. You’ll also learn what the key themes of a good brand are and where to find the ingredients to build your own, unique brand. Most importantly, you'll understand how to work your magic to achieve your goals and dreams. You’ll also learn: How to use sites like StackOverflow and Github to build both your expertise and your reputation How to promote your brand in a way that attracts better-paying jobs, consulting gigs, industry invitations, and contract work How to become visible to the movers and shakers in your specific category of development How to exert power and influence to help yourself and others Success in Programming: How to Gain Recognition, Power, and Influence Through Personal Branding shows you how to scale your skills, gain visibility, make a real impact on people and within organizations, and achieve your goals. There’s no need to become a marketing expert or hire a personal branding guru; this book and a desire to grow personally and professionally are all you need to leap to the next level of your career.
Ship It! is a collection of tips that show the tools andtechniques a successful project team has to use, and how to use themwell. You'll get quick, easy-to-follow advice on modernpractices: which to use, and when they should be applied. This bookavoids current fashion trends and marketing hype; instead, readersfind page after page of solid advice, all tried and tested in thereal world. Aimed at beginning to intermediate programmers, Ship It! will show you: Which tools help, and which don't How to keep a project moving Approaches to scheduling that work How to build developers as well as product What's normal on a project, and what's not How to manage managers, end-users and sponsors Danger signs and how to fix them Few of the ideas presented here are controversial or extreme; most experiencedprogrammers will agree that this stuff works. Yet 50 to 70 percent of allproject teams in the U.S. aren't able to use even these simple, well-acceptedpractices effectively. This book will help you get started. Ship It! begins by introducing the common technicalinfrastructure that every project needs to get the job done. Readerscan choose from a variety of recommended technologies according totheir skills and budgets. The next sections outline the necessarysteps to get software out the door reliably, using well-accepted,easy-to-adopt, best-of-breed practices that really work. Finally, and most importantly, Ship It! presents commonproblems that teams face, then offers real-world advice on how tosolve them.
Much of the innovative programming that powers the Internet, creates operating systems, and produces software is the result of "open source" code, that is, code that is freely distributed--as opposed to being kept secret--by those who write it. Leaving source code open has generated some of the most sophisticated developments in computer technology, including, most notably, Linux and Apache, which pose a significant challenge to Microsoft in the marketplace. As Steven Weber discusses, open source's success in a highly competitive industry has subverted many assumptions about how businesses are run, and how intellectual products are created and protected. Traditionally, intellectual property law has allowed companies to control knowledge and has guarded the rights of the innovator, at the expense of industry-wide cooperation. In turn, engineers of new software code are richly rewarded; but, as Weber shows, in spite of the conventional wisdom that innovation is driven by the promise of individual and corporate wealth, ensuring the free distribution of code among computer programmers can empower a more effective process for building intellectual products. In the case of Open Source, independent programmers--sometimes hundreds or thousands of them--make unpaid contributions to software that develops organically, through trial and error. Weber argues that the success of open source is not a freakish exception to economic principles. The open source community is guided by standards, rules, decisionmaking procedures, and sanctioning mechanisms. Weber explains the political and economic dynamics of this mysterious but important market development. Table of Contents: Preface 1. Property and the Problem of Software 2. The Early History of Open Source 3. What Is Open Source and How Does It Work? 4. A Maturing Model of Production 5. Explaining Open Source: Microfoundations 6. Explaining Open Source: Macro-Organization 7. Business Models and the Law 8. The Code That Changed the World? Notes Index Reviews of this book: In the world of open-source software, true believers can be a fervent bunch. Linux, for example, may act as a credo as well as an operating system. But there is much substance beyond zealotry, says Steven Weber, the author of The Success of Open Source...An open-source operating system offers its source code up to be played with, extended, debugged, and otherwise tweaked in an orgy of user collaboration. The author traces the roots of that ethos and process in the early years of computers...He also analyzes the interface between open source and the worlds of business and law, as well as wider issues in the clash between hierarchical structures and networks, a subject with relevance beyond the software industry to the war on terrorism. --Nina C. Ayoub, Chronicle of Higher Education Reviews of this book: A valuable new account of the [open-source software] movement. --Edward Rothstein, New York Times We can blindly continue to develop, reward, protect, and organize around knowledge assets on the comfortable assumption that their traditional property rights remain inviolate. Or we can listen to Steven Weber and begin to make our peace with the uncomfortable fact that the very foundations of our familiar "knowledge as property" world have irrevocably shifted. --Alan Kantrow, Chief Knowledge Officer, Monitor Group Ever since the invention of agriculture, human beings have had only three social-engineering tools for organizing any large-scale division of labor: markets (and the carrots of material benefits they offer), hierarchies (and the sticks of punishment they impose), and charisma (and the promises of rapture they offer). Now there is the possibility of a fourth mode of effective social organization--one that we perhaps see in embryo in the creation and maintenance of open-source software. My Berkeley colleague Steven Weber's book is a brilliant exploration of this fascinating topic. --J. Bradford DeLong, Department of Economics, University of California at Berkeley Steven Weber has produced a significant, insightful book that is both smart and important. The most impressive achievement of this volume is that Weber has spent the time to learn and think about the technological, sociological, business, and legal perspectives related to open source. The Success of Open Source is timely and more thought provoking than almost anything I've come across in the past several years. It deserves careful reading by a wide audience. --Jonathan Aronson, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California
"Early in his software developer career, John Sonmez discovered that technical knowledge alone isn't enough to break through to the next income level - developers need "soft skills" like the ability to learn new technologies just in time, communicate clearly with management and consulting clients, negotiate a fair hourly rate, and unite teammates and coworkers in working toward a common goal. Today John helps more than 1.4 million programmers every year to increase their income by developing this unique blend of skills. Who Should Read This Book? Entry-Level Developers - This book will show you how to ensure you have the technical skills your future boss is looking for, create a resume that leaps off a hiring manager's desk, and escape the "no work experience" trap. Mid-Career Developers - You'll see how to find and fill in gaps in your technical knowledge, position yourself as the one team member your boss can't live without, and turn those dreaded annual reviews into chance to make an iron-clad case for your salary bump. Senior Developers - This book will show you how to become a specialist who can command above-market wages, how building a name for yourself can make opportunities come to you, and how to decide whether consulting or entrepreneurship are paths you should pursue. Brand New Developers - In this book you'll discover what it's like to be a professional software developer, how to go from "I know some code" to possessing the skills to work on a development team, how to speed along your learning by avoiding common beginner traps, and how to decide whether you should invest in a programming degree or 'bootcamp.'"--
Software engineering education has a problem: universities and bootcamps teach aspiring engineers to write code, but they leave graduates to teach themselves the countless supporting tools required to thrive in real software companies. Building a Career in Software is the solution, a comprehensive guide to the essential skills that instructors don't need and professionals never think to teach: landing jobs, choosing teams and projects, asking good questions, running meetings, going on-call, debugging production problems, technical writing, making the most of a mentor, and much more. In over a decade building software at companies such as Apple and Uber, Daniel Heller has mentored and managed tens of engineers from a variety of training backgrounds, and those engineers inspired this book with their hundreds of questions about career issues and day-to-day problems. Designed for either random access or cover-to-cover reading, it offers concise treatments of virtually every non-technical challenge you will face in the first five years of your career—as well as a selection of industry-focused technical topics rarely covered in training. Whatever your education or technical specialty, Building a Career in Software can save you years of trial and error and help you succeed as a real-world software professional. What You Will Learn Discover every important nontechnical facet of professional programming as well as several key technical practices essential to the transition from student to professional Build relationships with your employer Improve your communication, including technical writing, asking good questions, and public speaking Who This Book is For Software engineers either early in their careers or about to transition to the professional world; that is, all graduates of computer science or software engineering university programs and all software engineering boot camp participants.
Build systems faster and more effectively with Mob Programming. Mob Programming is an approach to developing software that radically reduces defects and key-person dependencies by having a group of people work together at a single machine. See how to avoid the most common pitfalls that teams make when first starting out. Discover what it takes to create and support a successful mob. Now you can take collaborative programming to the next level with Mob Programming. Mob Programming is a natural extension of the popular Pair Programming concept, and is not restricted to a specific programming language or technology. It can be used by anyone who develops software, including dev leads, software developers, and agile coaches. The more people working on a bug or feature results in fewer dependencies on individuals, and overall increased learning for everyone involved. With more eyes on the code, you'll find you develop better solutions with fewer defects. Set up your team for success by introducing Mob Programming in a way that benefits them. Create a good first Mobbing experience for your team with a template that avoids the common traps beginners may fall into. Master a collaborative and empathic mindset to help optimize the Mobbing experience. Learn how to make adjustments when things go wrong. Adapt your mobbing to different types of development tasks. Get management buy-in for your Mobbing experiment by demonstrating the benefits. Discover the equipment and resources you need, and how to adjust your workspace for an effective mob. Get important features to market sooner, squish bugs faster, and collaborate better today with Mob Programming. What You Need: All you need is three or more programmers, a meeting workspace that's large enough to accommodate your mob, and a computer on which to work.
Be prepared to answer the most relevant interview questions and land the job Programmers are in demand, but to land the job, you must demonstrate knowledge of those things expected by today's employers. This guide sets you up for success. Not only does it provide 160 of the most commonly asked interview questions and model answers, but it also offers insight into the context and motivation of hiring managers in today's marketplace. Written by a veteran hiring manager, this book is a comprehensive guide for experienced and first-time programmers alike. Provides insight into what drives the recruitment process and how hiring managers think Covers both practical knowledge and recommendations for handling the interview process Features 160 actual interview questions, including some related to code samples that are available for download on a companion website Includes information on landing an interview, preparing a cheat-sheet for a phone interview, how to demonstrate your programming wisdom, and more Ace the Programming Interview, like the earlier Wiley bestseller Programming Interviews Exposed, helps you approach the job interview with the confidence that comes from being prepared.
Peter Seibel interviews 15 of the most interesting computer programmers alive today in Coders at Work, offering a companion volume to Apress’s highly acclaimed best-seller Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. As the words “at work” suggest, Peter Seibel focuses on how his interviewees tackle the day-to-day work of programming, while revealing much more, like how they became great programmers, how they recognize programming talent in others, and what kinds of problems they find most interesting. Hundreds of people have suggested names of programmers to interview on the Coders at Work web site: www.codersatwork.com. The complete list was 284 names. Having digested everyone’s feedback, we selected 15 folks who’ve been kind enough to agree to be interviewed: Frances Allen: Pioneer in optimizing compilers, first woman to win the Turing Award (2006) and first female IBM fellow Joe Armstrong: Inventor of Erlang Joshua Bloch: Author of the Java collections framework, now at Google Bernie Cosell: One of the main software guys behind the original ARPANET IMPs and a master debugger Douglas Crockford: JSON founder, JavaScript architect at Yahoo! L. Peter Deutsch: Author of Ghostscript, implementer of Smalltalk-80 at Xerox PARC and Lisp 1.5 on PDP-1 Brendan Eich: Inventor of JavaScript, CTO of the Mozilla Corporation Brad Fitzpatrick: Writer of LiveJournal, OpenID, memcached, and Perlbal Dan Ingalls: Smalltalk implementor and designer Simon Peyton Jones: Coinventor of Haskell and lead designer of Glasgow Haskell Compiler Donald Knuth: Author of The Art of Computer Programming and creator of TeX Peter Norvig: Director of Research at Google and author of the standard text on AI Guy Steele: Coinventor of Scheme and part of the Common Lisp Gang of Five, currently working on Fortress Ken Thompson: Inventor of UNIX Jamie Zawinski: Author of XEmacs and early Netscape/Mozilla hacker
A systematic examination of the factors that influence the success or abandonment of open-source software projects and the implications for other kinds of collaborations. The use of open-source software (OSS)--readable software source code that can be copied, modified, and distributed freely--has expanded dramatically in recent years. The number of OSS projects hosted on SourceForge.net (the largest hosting Web site for OSS), for example, grew from just over 100,000 in 2006 to more than 250,000 at the beginning of 2011. But why are some projects successful--that is, able to produce usable software and sustain ongoing development over time--while others are abandoned? In this book, the product of the first large-scale empirical study to look at social, technical, and institutional aspects of OSS, Charles Schweik and Robert English examine factors that lead to success in OSS projects and work toward a better understanding of Internet-based collaboration. Drawing on literature from many disciplines and using a theoretical framework developed for the study of environmental commons, Schweik and English examine stages of OSS development, presenting multivariate statistical models of success and abandonment. Schweik and English argue that analyzing the conditions of OSS successes may also inform Internet collaborations in fields beyond software engineering, particularly those that aim to solve complex technical, social, and political problems.
Software Maintenance Success Recipes identifies actionable formulas for success based on in-depth analysis of more than 200 real-world maintenance projects. It details the set of factors that are usually present when effective software maintenance teams do their work and instructs on the methods required to achieve success. Donald J. Reifer-an award winner for his contributions to the field of software engineering-provides step-by-step guidance on how to structure the job to complete all of the work related to the task.
