Refactoring (the brain) for software developers:
a collection of basic ideas about how to advance in career as software engineers and how to improve our brain to support this effort.
If you want to know more, there is an excellent book about this subject: Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware (Pragmatic Programmers)
I never judge a candidate in the software industry based on brainteasers (there are a lot of pros and cons anyway),
but this one is really funny:
There are two equal containers, one of water and one of wine.
You take ladle of wine and put it in the water, later on you take the same ladle of the water-wine mixture and put it into the wine container.
Is there more wine in the water container, or more water in the wine?
A complete answer here: http://www.donaldsauter.com/wine.htm
As an Engineering Manager / Development Manager aspiring to be a good software craftsman I want to promote good engineering practices, clean code, scalable solutions, all driven by self-org teams that continuously improve their abilities and skills.
I am fully aware that I cannot support my team in these directions if I do not continue to study every day.
This shall not be seen as a “must read” or like a “top 20″, there might be some better books that can help you boost your career or some other fundamental readings that I did not list here,
maybe because I already read those books in the past 
.
Leadership books like “Peopleware”, “Five Disfunctions of a Team”, “7 habits…”, or classic software books like “Code Complete”, “Joel on Software” or in general authors like
Martin Fowler, Mike Cohn, Craig Larman, Tom De Marco are a must read for every professional in our industry.
If you are interested in statistics and stuff like “top 10″ etc, you can have a look on Jurgen Appello’s blog (not all the lists are updated to 2012 but they are still relevant): http://www.noop.nl/lists.html.
Here is a list of 21 books that guided me in 2011:
HIRING & GROWING THE TEAM
PROCESS IMPLEMENTATION
TOOLS
Why we continue to hear about a common behavioral pattern in a job title so called “software architect”: ?
It’s that kind of super senior / ex developer that now is doing fancy n types of diagrams (UML, CRC models, DFD, contract model, …),
well in Agile not that many as in a traditional Unified Model like RUP|
but when it’s time to deliver “something” they fail because they are only diagrammers who don’t write code code at all, or the last time they wrote some code it was when they were promoted from a Senior Dev position.
If you want to be a software architect, not a diagrammer boy, you have to get your hands dirty and understand what works and what doesn’t, get a continuous feel of the current technologies and tools available, read and play with the frameworks, understand the latest IT trends and risks, keep an eye on performance and scalability issues, and again , play play play with the code.
Owning a small piece of functionality (not piece of code, piece of functionality :) , so feature not layer) will keep you in the loop in all the sprints, you will get a feeling of what is going on in the real world and help you come down from the ivory tower 
.
A reading recommandation for today (oldies but goldies), is linked to some big extends with our subject : http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/agileArchitecture.htm
Happy ”prove it with your code” architecture !
“The most successful projects that I worked for, relied on trust, humility and skills. Everything else changed each time.” (Giacomo Tesio, SW Architect)
SDL LW – Prezentare UTCN 16 Nov 2011(download aici) - prezentarea facuta la Universitatea Tehnica Cluj-Napoca, Electrotech, zilele Universitatii Tehnice 2011.
Este in limba romana.
Enjoy!
TU Cluj Students,
In 16.11.2011 at 1.00 PM we will talk about what it takes to build a strong career in Software Development and how to shape your skills to be that clean coder / productive programmer that everybody wants to hire.
Join us at Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, C. Daicoviciu, nr. 15, room 467.
A book that I highly recommend: Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies
It’s about common patterns you will meet in your teams. Well, you may read this book for fun or seriously, but I guarantee you will not regret.
See a sample here: http://www.dorsethouse.com/pdf/Preview-Dorset-Adrenaline.pdf
Dragi scriitori de anunturi de angajare,
Daca tot nu va duce mintea sa scrieti un anunt de la zero, macar puneti mana si taiati un 2 din cuvantul J2EE, lasati doar JEE pentru ca altfel va rad si curcile. J2EE e deprecat demult ca nume, probabil tot de atunci decand nu ati mai pus voi mana pe cod.
Deci daca tot cautati oameni de top, faceti si voi un efort si ramaneti up-to-date, macar pentru respectul celor cu care veti lucra.
(sau cine stie, poarte chiar cautati pt J2EE, sa fie pe 1.3 din 2001 sau pe 1.4 din 2003-2004 pe acolo …, apropo trebuie sa stie si JDBC ?).
Succes !
