Articles

Building bug-free O-O software: An introduction to Design by Contract - Advanced use of assertions for clearer specifications and greater software reliability. By OO guru Bertrand Meyer, creator of Eiffel.
archive.eiffel.com/doc/manuals/technology/contract/page.html

Classic Mistakes Enumerated - Description of 36 ineffective development practices: people-related, process-related, product-related, technology-related. (Sample chapter from Steve McConnell's book Rapid Development.)
www.stevemcconnell.com/rdenum.htm

Heavy Rotation - For business software, faster-cheaper can be better too.
www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/w_fiefer_2.html

High-Pressure Steam Engines and Computer Software - Software safety. Parallels between the early development of high-pressure steam engines and software engineering that we can apply to the use of computers in complex systems. [PDF]
sunnyday.mit.edu/steam.pdf

Introducing Demeter and its Laws - Adaptive Programming - specifying the connections between objects as loosely as possible. Makes programs more flexible, more resilient to change, and more adaptable to varying configurations of classes within a given domain
www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/demeter-intro.html

Large Software Systems - Back to Basics - John Evans; Crosstalk, June 2000. The importance of software architecture, and related items such as unambiguous requirements and coding standards.
stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2000/06/evans.html

Lessons Learned -- Current Problems - Technical and managerial best/worst practices. Based on study of US Department of Defense software projects.
www.spmn.com/lessons.html

Major Causes of Software Project Failures - Lorin J. May; Crosstalk, July 1998. Based on interviews with software consultants and practitioners who were asked to provide "autopsies" of failed projects with which they have been acquainted.
stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1998/07/causes.asp

The Many Dimensions of the Software Process - Explores the importance and purpose of software process and quality.
www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds6-4/software.html

Medical Devices: The Therac-25 - Case study of a well known software error. [PDF]
sunnyday.mit.edu/papers/therac.pdf

Nine Steps to Delivering Defect-Free Software - By a software developer and consultant with over 30 years experience.
www.tenberry.com/errfree/steps.htm

On the Criteria To Be Used in Decomposing Systems into Modules - One of the classic articles leading to modern software engineering, by D.L. Parnas.
portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=361623

Orphans Preferred - Characteristics of software developers - personality type, demographics, age, education, attitudes.
www.gamasutra.com/features/19991222/mcconnell_01.htm

Principles of Good GUI Design - Describes the basic rules for all good interfaces - the cardinal dos and don'ts.
axp16.iie.org.mx/Monitor/v01n03/ar_ihc2.htm

Seven Principles Of Software Development - Emphasizes "soft" issues - attitude, approach.
c2.com/cgi/wiki?SevenPrinciplesOfSoftwareDevelopment

Seven Steps to Test Automation Success - This paper presents seven key steps: improve the testing process, define requirements, prove the concept, champion product testability, design for sustainability, plan for deployment, and face the challenges of success.
www.io.com/~wazmo/papers/seven_steps.html

Successful Engineering Management: 7 Lessons Learned - People management advice for technical people.
www.jrothman.com/Papers/usefulmgmtideas.html

Sure It Works, But Is It Beautiful: The Relationship Between Software Aesthetics and Quality - Some aspects of the relationship between quality and aesthetics (beauty) in software, using architecture analogies.
www.chc-3.com/pub/beautifulsoftware.htm

Survival Crib Notes: NASA's Success Checklist - 9 Dos and 8 Don'ts for software project success, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. (Sample chapter from Steve McConnell's book Software Project Survival Guide.)
www.stevemcconnell.com/sgcrib.htm

What Do Users Want? Engineering Usability into Software - User-Centered Design. Simple approaches for delivering smaller, simpler systems that better serve the needs of users.
foruse.com/articles/whatusers.htm