“Growing Software” book review

I have been reading this book Growing Software by Louis Testa, and I consider it the book of the year for me.

The book is a about how to create a robust successful software; starting from assembling your engineering team, to having a flourishing company with successful software product/services and happy customers.
If you are a new Development Manager, or already a Dev. manager who is in a small company growing fast, this book is for you.

There are many reasons why I find this book so valuable, here is a list of them:

1. Scope: I haven’t come across any book that covers this scope of what should be done to create successful software; usually books would talk about the SDLC, Development Methodology and Process, engineering techniques…etc, and if you are lucky maybe about some of the best practices around that.
   This book, on the other hand, covers a lot more; it starts from the real beginning of understanding the environment around you, creating an effective engineering team and growing it, defining your product, defining releases, project estimation, project execution, choosing a process, enhancing the process, communicating with other departments, handling customers… and it even covers the future by setting directions, product roadmap and strategy. You can check the main table of contents here
2. Practical: the book is obviously coming from a practical background, it tackles details that won’t be found unless the author really KNOWS what he is talking about, and that he actually lived that experience.
   This is especially obvious when the author talks about the wrong way of doing things. for example, I have always thought adding an unplanned extra feature to a release is a good thing, in fact that was a NO in Growing Software with enough good reasons.
   The real life examples of real instances took place (shown in grey boxes) added a great value; you will always stay skeptical about a theory until you hear someone who had lived it.
   Another part of the practical side is the auxiliary spreadsheets the book provides to tackle certain decision-making situations. No Starch Press provide them for download from their site here.
3. Realistic: The book doesn’t promise you with a sliver bullet, instead it puts the various options on the table and show you why/when you would choose one over the other depending on the situation, injecting this with the experience Mr. Louis Testa has.
   It doesn’t tell you use Agile methodologies, RUP, or Waterfall…it helps you how to choose a process, how to customize it to fit your organization, and how to improve it.
4. For Humans: actually this is one of the best things I liked about the book; I have always believed that we can’t separate business, process, establishments, or evolution without considering the emotions, the culture, and the mentality of the humans involved.
   Reading throughout the book, you can see that this was kept between the eyes all along when it talks about engineers, fellow executives, or customers. Tackling emotions, behavior, expectations and negotiation. Politics was significantly considered in the book when taking decisions or dealing with the different parties
5. Simple: It’s simple; the language is easy to understand, and the structure and sequence of the book is logical. I had no interpretation burden while reading it.

Though, the addressed character in the book is a development manager or a CTO strictly; I’d have really loved if it had shed more light on the Business side of the story, I know it would have widened the scope even more but I believe this is becoming a large need in the Software Industry in general, maybe in another book.
Another thing is that sometimes the book digs little bit too deep in the self-management advices, to extent that intelligent people might want to skip it whole together.

I’d definitely recommend this book for everyone who is interested in Growing his Software house, or being part of it.