Decline and Fall of the American Programmer

In this work, Ed Yourdon demonstrates how US software organizations can become world-class shops if they exploit the key software technologies of the 1990s. These technologies include object-oriented methods, CASE tools, software quality assurance, structured methods, software metrics, and re-engineering. Separate chapters are devoted to each of these technologies. Each chapter can be read on its own, and the associated software technology discussed in a given chapter can be implemented by an organization without necessarily implementing any other technology. However, the sequence of chapters reflects Yourdon's opinion about the ideal order in which critical issues should be tackled by an organization. Perhaps the most important issues discussed in the book are the "peopleware" issues crucial to running an efficient software development operation: effective hiring practices, training methods, motivational strategies, performance management procedures, and project team co-ordination. Filled with debate and commentary from international software development consultants and experts, this book demonstrates to US programmers, analysts, software engineers as well as to those in management positions, how to take advantaged of productivity improvements techniques practiced by world-class software development shops in Japan and the Far East, Europe, and Latin America.