The Software Developers’ Guidebook
The Software Developers’ Guidebook
A Collection of Modern Engineering Practices
About the Book
The essential handbook for software developers who want to build better software with practical, real-world techniques. Written by Dave Farley, award-winning author of "Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation" and a leading voice in modern software engineering.
Based on Dave's series of highly popular How-To guides, this book distills decades of software engineering experience into actionable insights. From writing better user stories and mastering test-driven development to adopting effective developer habits and organising teams for success—this guide is packed with advice you can apply immediately.
The Software Developers’ Guidebook is a practical, no-nonsense resource for developers at all levels. Whether you’re just starting out or refining your craft, this book will help you improve how you build software—one step at a time.
About the Authors
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Reader Testimonials
Susan Elam
Complete, concise, pragmatic, and descriptive... This is a gem of a book with a very readable style and an impressive encyclopaedic scope that deserves a place on everyones' shelf.
Dariusz Danielewski
Bought it. Worth every extra penny one can afford.
Daniel Wilkowski
I see the new book as something I can just tell people 'Read that' to get the new members into CD way of thinking.
John Whitehouse
A valuable and important complement to Dave's Continuous Delivery and Modern Software Engineering books, distilling key points into actionable things I can do today. I will refer to it for practical guidance and inspiration when determining how to proceed on projects, big and small.
Steven Borrie
The perfect content for new developers who want to get started on the right track.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Part 1. Foundations of Modern Software Development
- Starting A New Project
- Introduction
- Fast Feedback
- Optimise for Learning
- Set Up the Dev Environment
- Build a Deployment Pipeline
- Setting Goals
- Working in Small Steps
- Get Measures in Place
- Be Prepared to Change
- Learn more…
- Writing Better User Stories
- Better Specifications with User Stories
- What Are User Stories?
- Good Stories
- Examples of Good Stories
- Who Writes User Stories?
- Tips for Writing User Stories
- Where to Start
- Writing User Stories
- Avoid These Common Mistakes
- Learn more…
- Organising Software Development Teams
- How to set up your Software Development Teams?
- Team Size and Structure
- Team Skills & Responsibilities
- Team Organisation
- Platform Teams
- Cooperation and Collaboration
- Here are some recommendations:
- Transforming Team Structure
- Learn more…
- Pair Programming Patterns
- What is Pair Programming?
- Pair Patterns
- Pair Rotation
- The Benefits of Pair Programming
- Pair Partnerships
- Tips For Successful Pairing
- Learn more…
- Part 2. Software Testing
- Beginners Guide To TDD (Test Driven Development)
- Test Driven Development
- RED > GREEN > REFACTOR
- Top Tips
- Getting Going with TDD
- TDD Top Tips
- When to Use TDD?
- Test to Evaluate Behaviour, NOT Implementation
- Test First To Improve Design
- Three Mindsets of TDD
- Refactoring for Legacy Systems
- The Shape of Your Tests
- Changing Your Design
- Testing at the Edges
- Practise
- Learn more…
- Acceptance Test Driven Development
- Approach
- Properties of Effective Acceptance Tests
- Tips
- Four Layer Separation of Concerns
- Test Cases
- Domain Specific Language (DSL)
- Protocol Drivers
- System Under Test (SUT)
- Growing the DSL
- Learn more…
- What to Test, and When?
- Types of Testing at Different Stages
- Learn more…
- Testing in Production
- Feedback from Production
- Types of Test
- Business (Pirate) Metrics
- Data Collection
- Control the Variables
- Don’t Do E2E Testing
- Learn more…
- Eliminate Intermittent Tests
- Releasable or Not?
- Control Your Test Environment
- Isolate Your Test Data
- Implement Continuous Integration
- Monitor and Manage Resource Use
- Handle Concurrency and Race Conditions
- Test in Isolation
- Treat Tests as Falsification Mechanisms
- Continuous Monitoring in Production
- Choose the Right Testing Strategy
- Summary
- Learn more…
- Get Started With Behaviour Driven Development (BDD)
- Introduction
- Understanding BDD
- Core Tips and Advice
- Separating ‘What’ From ‘How’ - An Example
- The Process of Translation
- Common Pitfalls
- Summary
- Learn more…
- Test Software Performance
- Introduction
- Basic Concepts
- Key Idea – Control the Variables
- Practical Steps
- Advanced Performance Testing
- Conclusion
- Learn more…
- Part 3. Continuous Delivery Practices
- How To Build A Deployment Pipeline
- What Is A Deployment Pipeline?
- Key Components
- The Deployment Pipeline
- How To Build A Deployment Pipeline
- A Simple Example
- Getting Started
- Create a Commit Stage
- Create an Artifact Repository
- Create an Acceptance Stage
- Create a Simple version of Production
- Next Steps
- Team Behaviours
- Key Principles
- Learn more…
- Continuous Integration Top Tips
- 10 Tips for Continuous Integration
- My Top Tips
- Learn more…
- Assess Your CD Capability
- Self-Assessment - How Well Do You Do The Following?
- Reflect On Your Findings
- Conclusion
- Refactoring Legacy Code
- Introduction
- The 5 Steps In Refactoring To Testability
- Conclusion
- Learn more…
- Part 4. Architecture and Design
- Evolve Your Software Architecture
- Introduction
- Understanding Software Architecture
- Core Tips and Advice
- Embracing Evolutionary Architecture
- Evolutionary Architecture Techniques
- Summary
- Learn more…
- Get Started with Microservices
- Introduction
- Design
- Messaging
- Learn more…
- Part 5. Good Habits
- Adopt GREAT Developer Habits
- Introduction
- Code As Communication
- Be Cautious Of Frameworks
- Coding Is Design
- Quality Over Features
- Social Activity
- Avoid Code Ownership
- Work In Small Steps
- Conclusion
- Learn more…
- Avoid Common Software Development Pitfalls
- Introduction
- Break Bad Software Habits
- Are You Bad At Programming Or Just Making Excuses?
- Summary
- Conclusion
- Learn more…
- Summary
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