"More Joel on Software" Book Writeup
November 02, 2010
What’s the point? More musings on software from everyone’s favorite ex-Microsoft developer-turned-celebrity-blogger. This book is more focused on the business aspect of developing software and provides advice on a wide range of topics, including how to hire programmers, management techniques, and company philosophy and culture.
How was it? I really enjoy Spolsky’s writing and he does an excellent job of weaving in stories and anecdotes to support his arguments. On the other hand, I didn’t really care for the book as a whole. All of the content is good, but I had already read 85% of the articles on his blog. There is some great stuff (Strategy Letter VI and Evidence Based Scheduling come to mind), but I didn’t really benefit from having it as a hard copy.
I like to think of [More] Joel on Software as a gateway book – it is a great introductory book for people that are new to the whole “best practices for software” philosophy. It is approachable enough for non-technical managers and can really help get them excited about changing their own processes for the better.
Who should read it? If you are unfamiliar with Joel Spolsky or Joel on Software, you should definitely check out this book. But if you have read his blog with any frequency (and since he is ‘retired’ now it is easy to catch up on the archives) then you can probably skip the book.