Ship It! - Chapter 1

Ship It!: A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects by Jared Richardson, Will Gwaltney, Jr is a book that presents some ideas on software practices that can help keep developers, managers and customers happy about the software being produced.  The practices are based on real-world experience and are not part of an overall methodology -- you pick and chose the practices that make sense to you and your team.  I plan on summarizing chapters as I read them.  I feel it helps me to better understand the material because I have to take the time to think about the messages the book is trying to convey and pick out the highlights.  Let's get started.

Habitual Excellence
 Extraordinary products are merely side effects of good habits. Purposely seek out good habits, and add them to your daily routine.  I agree with the idea that it is the things you do routinely  that determines how effective you are in your daily situations so it makes sense to try an cultivate "good" habits.

Tip 1: Choose your habits.

A Pragmatic Point of ViewThe book is a collection of good habits and it is never too late to install good habits.  Hopefully, the habits won't be too painful or expensive to implement.

Road Map

• Infrastructure
• Techniques
• Process
• Common Problems and How To Fix Them

Potentially, the last section might be most interesting.  I'm sure I'll have seen some of the practices that will be suggested but haven't been able to implement for one reason or another.  I'll be curious to see what some possible solutions are.

Moving On
Try out the ideas and discard the ones that don't work for you. Make sure you understand the benefits before proposing a technique.  It is nice to see that it isn't an all-or-nothing mentality.  I'm guessing that that the more practices you adopt the more benefit your project will see but every team is different so you've got to see what works for you.