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| Foreword | |
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| About the Author | |
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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Software Development in an Imperfect World | |
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| Welcome to the Corporate World | |
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| So You Thought You'd Just Be Coding All Day, Eh? | |
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| What's a Nice Programmer Like Me | |
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| Why People Run Businesses and Pay Programmers | |
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| The Corporate World Is Not Logical | |
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| You Can't Win If You Don't Play | |
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| The Food Chain | |
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| The Various Species of Programmers | |
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| Business is War Meet the Enemy | |
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| Unrealistic Deadlines | |
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| Vague Definition of Requirements | |
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| Inadequate Time for Analysis and Design | |
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| Sometimes the Enemy Is Within | |
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| No Time or Resources for Testing | |
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| Poor Company Management | |
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| Internal Politics | |
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| The Unexpected | |
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| Good Coding Skills Are Not Enough | |
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| What's in It for Me? | |
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| Who Needs These Skills? | |
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| Taking Control of Your Time | |
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| Enhancing Design | |
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| Improving Interaction | |
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| Getting What You Want | |
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| Guerilla Tactics for Front-Line Programmers | |
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| Preventing Arbitrary Deadlines | |
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| Defining the Process | |
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| Commissioning a New Software Project | |
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| Identifying the Requirements | |
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| Building Your Testing Environment | |
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| Entering the Design Phase | |
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| Estimating the Effort | |
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| Coding Bliss | |
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| Testing the Candidates | |
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| Addressing the Installation Issues | |
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| Managing the Beta Phase | |
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| Getting Your Requirements Etched in Stone | |
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| You Don't Have to Like It. It Just Has to Be Clear | |
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| Where Does the Power Lie? | |
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| Politics Are an Inescapable Reality | |
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| Identifying the Other Influential People | |
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| Selling the Process | |
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| The Definition Questions | |
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| Preparations for Effective Information Gathering | |
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| Defining the Requirements | |
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| When the Party's Over | |
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| Coping with a Hostile Environment | |
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| Politics Are Never Far Away | |
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| Effective Design Under Fire | |
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| Design? What Design? | |
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| Estimating the Design Effort | |
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| Rolling Your Own Design Methodology | |
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| Hitting the High Points | |
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| Effective Prototyping | |
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| When You Can't Get Even This Much Time | |
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| Onward to Implementation | |
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| Practical Estimating Techniques | |
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| Understanding the Process | |
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| Avoiding Common Mistakes | |
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| The Myth of the Eight-Hour Day | |
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| Crunching the Numbers | |
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| Converting Hours to Delivery Dates | |
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| Don't Forget the Final Details | |
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| Wrapping Up the Project | |
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| What If Things Didn't Go by the Book? | |
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| Fighting for Quality Assurance | |
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| How Do We Get Away with Buggy Releases? | |
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| Justifying a Quality Assurance Effort | |
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| What's a Tester? | |
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| Building Your Team | |
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| Training Your Testers | |
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| Make the Testers Feel Like a Part of the Team | |
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| Establishing the QA Process | |
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| Keepingthe Project Under Control | |
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| Keeping Track of Your Time | |
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| Managing Your Team | |
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| Improving Your Coding Discipline | |
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| Thinking Ahead to Debugging | |
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| Incorporating Version Control | |
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| Improving Productivity | |
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| Knowing When to Walk Away | |
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| Optimizing Your Meetings | |
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| Wrapping It Up | |
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| Managing Your Management | |
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| Improving Communications | |
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| Instituting Change | |
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| Bolstering Your Position | |
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| Frontal Assaults (For Those Who Respond to Reason) | |
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| Stealth Tactics (When Reason Is Not Enough) | |
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| Credibility, the Key to Success | |
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| Corporate Self-Defense | |
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| What Do You Have to Lose? | |
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| Picking Your Battles | |
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| Avoid Being a Target | |
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| Assessing the Lay of the Land | |
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| Escape and Evade | |
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| If You Must Attack | |
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| Improving Your Skills | |
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| Building A Better Career | |
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| Controlling Your Destiny | |
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| Considering Your Options | |
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| The Company Man | |
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| The Mercenary | |
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| The Entrepreneur | |
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| Off to the Races | |
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| Get A Job (Sha Na Na Na...) | |
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| The Usual Suspects | |
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| Fame for Fun and Profit | |
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| Getting the Word Out | |
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| Digging Deeper | |
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| Shuffling Paper | |
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| Face Time | |
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| Career 2.0 | |
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| Captain, She Canna Take Much More o'This! | |
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| Life Beyond Coding | |
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| Where's a Compass When You Need One? | |
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| Abandon Ship! | |
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| Where Do We Go from Here? | |
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| Turning Passion into Paychecks | |
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| Flying Solo | |
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| Many Hats | |
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| Getting the Picture | |
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| Know Your Weaknesses | |
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| Creating Your Deliverables | |
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| Distribution Decisions | |
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| Getting the Word Out | |
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| Continuing Education | |
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| Job Security | |
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| Long-Term Thinking | |
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| Taking Care of Your Peers | |
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| Improving Communication | |
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| Overcoming Fear of Change | |
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| Turning Drudgery into Games | |
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| Promoting Your Agenda | |
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| Becoming a General | |
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| Inspiring Innovation | |
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| Generating Enthusiasm | |
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| Promoting Unity | |
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| The Indispensable Programmer | |
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| Index | |