Gerald M. Weinberg

Donald C. Gause

A Practical Guide for Everyone Involved in Product and Systems Development The fledgling problem solver invariably rushes in with solutions before taking time to define the problem being solved. Even experienced solvers, when subjected to social pressure, yield to this demand for haste. When they do, many solutions are found, but not necessarily to the problem at hand. Whether you are a novice or a veteran, this powerful little book will make you a more effective problem solver. Anyone involved in product and systems development will appreciate this practical illustrated guide, which was first published in 1982 and has since become a cult classic. Offering such insights as "A problem is a difference between things as desired and things as perceived, " and "In spite of appearances, people seldom know what they want until you give them what they ask for, " authors Don Gause and Jerry Weinberg provide an entertaining look at ways to improve one's thinking power. The book playfully instructs the reader first to identify the problem, second to determine the problem's owner, third to identify where the problem came from, and fourth to determine whether or not to solve it. Delightfully illustrated with 55 line drawings, the book conveys a message that will change the way you think about projects and problems.

How to Figure Out what the Problem Really is

Are Your Lights On?

The Secrets of Consulting--techniques, strategies, and first-hand experiences--all that you'll need to set up, run, and be successful at your own consulting business.

A Guide to Giving & Getting Advice Successfully

The Secrets of Consulting

For more than twenty-five years, An Introduction to General Systems Thinking has been hailed as an innovative introduction to systems theory, with applications in computer science and beyond. Used in university courses and professional seminars all over the world, the text has proven its ability to open minds and sharpen thinking.Originally published in 1975 and reprinted more than twenty times over a quarter century-and now available for the first time from Dorset House Publishing-the text uses clear writing and basic algebraic principles to explore new approaches to projects, products, organizations, and virtually any kind of system.Scientists, engineers, organization leaders, managers, doctors, students, and thinkers of all disciplines can use this book to dispel the mental fog that clouds problem-solving. As author Gerald M. Weinberg writes in the new Preface to the Silver Anniversary Edition, "I haven't changed my conviction that most people don't think nearly as well as they could had they been taught some principles of thinking."Now an award-winning author of nearly forty books spanning the entire software development life cycle-including The Psychology of Computer Programming: Silver Anniversary Edition and Exploring Requirements (with Donald C. Gause)-Weinberg had already acquired extensive experience as a programmer, manager, university professor, and consultant when this book was originally published.With helpful illustrations, numerous end-of-chapter exercises, and an appendix on a mathematical notation used in problem-solving, An Introduction to General Systems Thinking may be your most powerful tool in working with problems, systems, and solutions.

An Introduction to General Systems Thinking

Whether you manage people, are managed by people, or just want to change the way you interact with others, this book is about success. How to plan it, how to make it happen--Becoming a Technical Leader shows you how to do it!

An Organic Problem-solving Approach

Becoming a Technical Leader

Discover or Revisit One of the Most Popular Books in Computing This landmark 1971 classic is reprinted with a new preface, chapter-by-chapter commentary, and straight-from-the-heart observations on topics that affect the professional life of programmers. Long regarded as one of the first books to pioneer a people-oriented approach to computing, The Psychology of Computer Programming endures as a penetrating analysis of the intelligence, skill, teamwork, and problem-solving power of the computer programmer. Finding the chapters strikingly relevant to today's issues in programming, Gerald M. Weinberg adds new insights and highlights the similarities and differences between now and then. Using a conversational style that invites the reader to join him, Weinberg reunites with some of his most insightful writings on the human side of software engineering. Topics include egoless programming, intelligence, psychological measurement, personality factors, motivation, training, social problems on large projects, problem-solving ability, programming language design, team formation, the programming environment, and much more. Dorset House Publishing is proud to make this important text available to new generations of programmers--and to encourage readers of the first edition to return to its valuable lessons.

The Psychology of Computer Programming

Everyone has a role to play in software testing -- even people outside a project team. Testers, developers, managers, customers, and users shape the process and results of testing, often unwittingly. Rather than continue to generate stacks of documents and fuel animosity, testers can cultivate rich opportunities and relationships by integrating an effective testing mentality into any process. Gerald Weinberg, author of The Psychology of Computer Programming and more than forty nonfiction books, sets out to disprove destructive notions about testing and testers in Perfect Software: And Other Illusions About Testing. With a blend of wit, storytelling, and jaw-dropping insight that has won him fans around the world, Weinberg deftly separates what is expected, significant, and possible in software testing. He destroys fallacies and steers readers clear of common mistakes. We test because people are not perfect, and simply testing "more" does not guarantee better quality. This book guides test strategy development that's scalable for any project. Topics include: * Why Not Just Test Everything? * Information Immunity * What Makes a Test "Good"? * Major Fallacies About Testing * Determining Significance * Testing Without Machinery * and much more

Perfect Software--and Other Illusions about Testing

Secrets of Consulting

Quality Software Management

The Fieldstone Method

Weinberg on Writing

Congruent Action (Quality Software Management)

Daniela Weinberg

Bring a Deeper Understanding of Systems to Software and System Development Originally titled On the Design of Stable Systems in its first, hardcover incarnation, in 1979, General Principles of Systems Design does not just focus on computer systems, but systems of all kinds--human, natural, and technological. In a highly readable, original presentation that embraces everything from depletion curves to the Feedback Principle (the method of controlling a system by reinserting it into the results of its past performance), the Weinbergs explore the subtle art and science of regulating systems, projects, and people in the most efficient and logical manner possible. The authors draw on their respective backgrounds in technology and social science to offer fresh insights and translate them into a language that anyone can understand. In the course of this presentation, the Weinbergs introduce a host of laws and theorems derived from the best thinking of systems thinkers over the past century. In addition to being a reference book for professional and lay people alike, General Principles of Systems Design is suitable as an undergraduate text in the humanities, social, natural, and engineering sciences. It is unique in its approach, highly readable, and offers practical ways of solving problems.

General Principles of Systems Design

The Consultant's Tool Kit

More Secrets of Consulting

The scholar John von Neumann once said, "There's no sense being exact about something if you don't even know what you're talking about."In a world that is growing increasingly dependent on highly complex, computer-based systems, the importance of defining what you want to make before making it—that is, knowing what you're talking about—cannot be stressed enough. Here's an innovative book that gives you the understanding you need to give people the solutions they want. The collaborative team of Gause and Weinberg tells how you can assure the requirements are right—before the product is designed. Written by two recognized authorities in the field, this book is a collection of ideas developed, refined, and tested during their more than sixty combined years of work with both large and small organizations. The techniques formulated in Exploring Requirements are not confined to software development; they have been used effectively to develop a wide range of products and systems—from computer software to furniture, books, and buildings. Systems analysts and anyone involved with the challenges of the requirements process will greatly benefit from this book.

Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design, Paperback Edition

This second stand-alone volume of the series offers you a step-by-step plan for gathering reliable information through careful observation and measurement. Specific techniques are explained in detail, with a model that divides the complex measurement process into four Intake Meaning Significance Response Each step illustrates how to more precisely observe and measure the software development process.Weinberg targets the key factors to measure, so as to produce consistent quality software.

Quality Software Management: Volume 2, First-Order Measurement

System Design Heuristics

Anticipating Change

This is Volume 2 of the latest edition of the classic series, Quality Software. Its fundamental purpose is to teach how to understand the dynamics of software development organizations, to plan software projects, and to act effectively to carry out those plans. Many books have described How Software Is Built. It's a complex subject, and indeed, that's the first title in this Quality Software Series. But people who use software (and builders, too) want to know Why Software Gets In Trouble. You might wonder why anyone would need an entire book on that subject. Why not just say "people make mistakes"? Why not? Because there are reasons people make mistakes, and make them repeatedly, and fail to discover and correct them. That's what this book is about, and believe me, those reasons (and how to prevent them) do fill an entire book. The reasons are both personal and organizational. If we're ever going to build better quality software, we'll definitely have to study the reasons people make mistakes. For software developers, designers, testers, their mangers, and their customers, that study starts right here. Written from a technical and psychological perspective, describing how to think about what you do. The notation takes almost no effort to learn and use it. The diagrams are simple and easy to understand and used in a consistent manner. The book offers ideas for coping with the very difficult problems that face those who work on projects where they don't have enough time, enough information, enough skill, or enough money to do a perfect job of anything. Given these limitations, managers have to make tradeoff decisions in light of the best understanding of cause and effect they can muster. Reviewers say the book is a hidden treasure, containing within it the best definitions of quality ever published. It's written with a great sense of humor that helps make the lessons and insights you will get from the book easier to take. For example, why is software development so often plagued by crisis? Weinberg helps the reader step back from developing software and examine the dynamics and patterns of software creation. By discussing patterns of quality, patterns of managing and patterns of software faults, the author shows that quality software begins with keen observation and clear thinking about software development. The text is extremely thought-provoking and is spiced with anecdotes drawn from decades of software experience. The book is divided into two sections: "Fault Patterns" and "Pressure Patterns." Each section has a number of chapters that examine different systemic aspects of the specific issues. "Fault Patterns" discusses different types of defects and how they occur. In addition, Weinberg examines what are software faults and how the organization deals with them means to how the people work. "Pressure Patterns" looks into managerial behavior and why managers lose patience and feel helpless.

Why Software Gets in Trouble

Gerald M. Weinberg, author of more than forty books -- including eighteen published by Dorset House -- reveals his secrets for collecting and organizing his ideas for writing projects. Drawing an analogy to the stone-by-stone method of building fieldstone walls, Weinberg shows writers how to construct fiction and nonfiction manuscripts from key insights, stories, and quotes. The elements, or stones, are collected nonsequentially, over time, and eventually find logical places in larger pieces. The method renders writer's block irrelevant and has proved effective for scores of Weinberg's writing class students. If you've ever wanted to write a book or article -- or need to revitalize your writing career -- don't miss this intimate glimpse into the mind behind some the computer industry's best books. Topics Include: * learning to care about what you have to write * exercises in playing with your words * when is it plagiarism * the structure of creation versus the structure of presentation * stimulate your memory * getting published * and much more Insights from the Book "What would you really like to write? For many would-be writers, this is the hardest exercise of all. They've never in their lives allowed themselves to think about what they wanted. So, put aside everything your teachers told you, your parents told you, your boss told you, your spouse told you, or I told you. Dream your dream. Would you like to write about how to play pinball? What it feels like to canoe a Class Five rapids? Your grandmother's knitting? What's wrong with the design of some computer system? Peace in Ireland? What you'd like your children to know about you? Something to amuse your grandchildren? How you get in touch with God? I can't tell you. This is where you have to find out for yourself." "Can it be more than one thing? Certainly. Are you allowed to get it 'wrong'? Absolutely. Can you change your mind later? Definitely. But right now, let your heart tell you what you'd like to write. Then write it down -- just the title, or titles. Any more than that is optional." "Don't be disappointed if you can't identify what you really want to write. Quite likely, you'll find many answers, but none will be the final answer. I knew when I was eight years old, but I didn't know I knew until about forty years later." - from Chapter 1

In the first of three volumes about quality, management, and productivity, Weinberg discusses software development organizations in terms of their culture, and he observes the patterns of their behavior. Organizations can be classified as one of six cultural patterns, ranging from Pattern One (obvio

Gerald M. Weinberg

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