But to hell with all these rules! You should live here and now and if you get the chance to do more than you can, do it immediately. There is little probability that you will lift a big iron case (see the movie One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest). But you will not ever succeed if you do not make at least an effort.
I am really interested in my profession and every day long I try to make my life (and professional activity) better and happier as more as possible. Of course, it is foolish to think that writing something like book, article or something like “advertisement to myself” will increase my or somebody else’s education (more details see in the article [2]). But nevertheless it has the sense.
Release of the book will enlarge my “virtual learning” (in other words what attitude the potential employers will have towards me). All of these things (meeting new persons, receiving new information) extend fair chances to increase my real education i.e. real benefits that I bring to the projects which I take part in. Enlarging real education incites me to publish new materials. And so on.
By this book I would like to prove (most of all to myself) that our world is much easier than it may seems for the first glace. It is possible to succeed in spite of those obstacles that can be encountered in our way.
There is a story about a millionaire who said: “I can tell you how I earned every million of mine, except the first one”. Indeed if you perceive the life success as a goal for climbing up the endless stairs, it is really difficult to make the first step. I tried to make this book as an exam for the right to climb up the first step.
And finally, it is a groove to write a book like to compose music, draw a picture or sculpture.
Actually the beauty will save the world, software projects and me.
When you see how fragments of thoughts and phrases after patient processing (with painful search of synonyms and making up participles) turn into a coherent text with a logical plot, you derive great incomparable enjoyment.
Programming gives this kind of pleasure as well. It is connected with the moment when disembodied data, requirements, orders, instructions, rumors and fantasies related to the system are like huge heavy stones suddenly become to form in your head a single sculpture. Every particle of a puzzle finds its own place and it remains only to bring them back to life. The stone statue wakes up and hand-made creature begins to take its first steps. This is the greatest pleasure of our profession.
3. ORIGINAL IDEA
Initially I had the following idea concerning this book (I had intention to release only paper variant of the book): firstly, to make an overview of up-to-date methodologies of software development, and secondary, to express the main idea that all of the methodologies use one of the successful project solutions. (See the fig. 1).
Figure 1. Successful project solutions area
Х – axis of software lifecycle stages;
Y – importance level of successful project solutions for a concrete stage
1..9 – Lifecycle (1-project base “Management”);
Circles – Successful project solutions known by this time;
Shadings – different methodologies of software development including the solutions in their postulate list.
In the middle of the book I planned to leave five blank sheets. Every sheet would be a form for entering a successful solution discovered by a reader (rather a writer) in the process of developing the next solution. The form would be standard: name,
code of lifecycle stage, effectiveness evaluation, description and additional information sources for solving the problem.
The concluding chapters would be “Table of Contents” and “Bibliography”. Of course, these chapters would be filled in manually. Everybody has his own “golden set” of books, WEB resources and phone numbers of neighboring pizzerias.
The idea lay in the fact that everybody would write his own book and even insert his initials in the cover.
But later I looked through my home library and found that the idea concerning book addition by a reader had been already made a reality. These are so-called “Notes”. I did not have notes at all. That is why I decided to refer to the creative work more professionally, and thus, the book gained the present form.
Also my plans included (in the case of positive evaluation of my book by qualified developers and free time available) further development of the theory about “general successful project solutions areas” and its release in the form of the Internet web-site. This site would be some kind of a portal for information exchange between software developers and supplement in databases of successful solutions. The main components of the site would be the following: developer Forum, divided into different themes (Lifecycle stages, Methodologies, Products, and etc.), Guest book, User Profiles and the most important thing – Database of successful project solutions, available for publicity. The site user would value every new solution (or changes in description of old one), and in case of the positive result it would be added to the database.
However, I’ve got the thing that I’ve got. As for book continuation, I think that it would be written in the moment when my professional experience would be brought to the qualitative new level. Maybe it would take 20 years (as in the case with F. Brooks) or less. By the way, as for Brooks: did you noticed differences between dedications of 1975 and 1995? In the first one the author mentioned his direct boss, while in the second – Nancy, God’s gift to him.
At last the family and all the things connected appear in the list of life values. But does “the core idea of the program engineering” lie in this?
4. GRATITUDE
Thus, here are the persons who influenced my growth much and whom I bless for this:
– My parents, they gave me birth; -) I prefer not to live in the times when the world terrorism is victorious, but there’s nothing to be done.
– My sister for support.
– Technical University of Moldova – for higher technical education not to be very good, but better among others in the Republic. In the book [15] the author says that you should set yourself an object, get the education as good as it is possible, and then for God’s sake do something!
– Stratan Victor for excellent explanation of theory and help in practice of design patterns, OOP and etc. Thanks to him for the first version of Rational Rose 98.
– Serdtsev Vitaly – after watching his “magic” with assembly programs, С++, low-level programming, I took a great interest in my own profession and have not been regretting still. I recall the words of our department manager V. Beshliu: “You came here in the University with different aims, but in the case of graduation you will be fervent patriots of your profession”.
– Smolov Alexander – when the balance between joys and sorrows of a profession moves in favor of the last (idea from the book [6]), I sit down to my computer and struggle against aliens in my old kind XCOM (see website [15]), whom Alexander brought me on 3 diskettes with little elephants. Thanks to it all sad thoughts disappear, but you keep dreaming about little green men for a long time.; -)
– Dragoner V.V. –