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Object Solutions by Grady Booch Highly Recommended

ISBN: 0-8053-0594-7       Publisher: Addison-Wesley       Pages: 322       Price: £21-95

Categories:   object oriented     writing solid code

Reviewed by Francis Glassborow in C Vu 8-4 (May 1996)

Adopting OO technology has proved to be a far from zero- risk decision. Companies have driven themselves into bankruptcy by lack of planning when making this move. Not infrequently those having difficulties start to blame the language they are using, the design methodology (or lack there of) and anything else that makes blame for failure someone else's problem. What they should have done was study the problem of shifting paradigms and make realistic estimates of the time, training and changes that would need to be undertaken. Too often those making decisions either know nothing about programming, or did their programming in a data flow paradigm.

Only recently have we begun to have well written books that should help with management of OO development. This is one of those books. It is highly readable, avoids excessive use of jargon and unnecessary technical vocabulary and stays focused on the task at hand: managing an OO project. You can read it anywhere (the bath, the train, or on the M25 dynamic car park).

The seven chapters range from First Principles (including When Bad Things Happen to Good Projects) to Special Topics (leads off with What They Don't Teach You in Programming Class) passing through such items as The Development Team (Managers Who Hate Programmers, and the Programmers Who Work For Them). At the end of the book you will find a useful summary of recommended practices and a summary of rules of thumb.

The only problem is how we get people (particularly managers) to take the few hours needed to read this book. If you are involved in software development, buy this book, read it then do all you can to get others managing your work to read it as well.