Thanks... enjoyed reading your first chapter - looking forward to more!
Roy,
I totally agree. Actually when I wrote my game programming book I took a Scrum-like approach to it. I did have to submit the TOC and sample chapters to get things going but I considered those a 50,000 foot view of the book with a prototype. After that I took on a chapter that I liked (didn't start at the beginning) and would work on it in small pieces (this was all done at night and weekends). After about a week I figured what I could achieve so I had my velocity. Then I started to break down each chapter into it's sections. During the writing of each chapter things moved around, got reprioritized and even moved to other chapters as time went on.
As I was my own Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developer I made those choices. Maybe not the best way to write a book, but I think I did a pretty good job. I had a clear idea after a month of how long the entire task was going to be and I hit it so I consider it a success.
Take it easy, take your time and get it done right. Like software, I don't think something like this should be rushed for deadline sake or else you'll just sacrifice quality or some features you really wanted to put into it. You're doing a great job from what I see so far and I (like others) are really looking forward to the end result!
Just last night I had that same thought! Well, mine was just related to writing an article for my blog.
I often feel like both code and writing (any creative task?) would be so much easier if only I could work out what I was trying to do up front. Unfortunately, it never seems to be possible - the requirements aren't something that seem to exist beforehand - they get generated or modified as development or writing progresses. Or is it just a lack of a disciplined approach ?
That's pretty much how I felt when writing Professional Team Foundation Server. Good Luck! Shoot me an email if you need a tech editor.
I loved the fact you talked about integration tests. It's a confusing topic that people tends to mix with unit tests.
Looking forward to reading your book.
I would agree with the comparison between writing and software development. In classic books about good writing like William Zinsser's "On Writing Well" the point is made that good writing means continually modifying and editing pages, paragraphs, and sentences over and over again till you get it right. With each iteration of changes you try to simply your language and remove excess words--which results in powerful, easy-to-understand, quality writing.
Basically it's just refactoring.
The other interesting thing is that people like Zinsser constantly bemoan all the example of terrible writing that are ubiquitous today: lots of business blather that says nothing. The classic example is the word "utilize". It's longer and sounds more sophisticaed than "use" but adds ZERO meaning in most cases. Obviously it's the same with code.
To me "software development as writing" is a better paradigm than the more traditional ones like "software development as construction" or "software development as gardening".
You are right on the money 100%. All we need now is to find a publisher that agrees and see if we can change the process of writing books :)
(btw mine is out soon and it was much harder than what I initially thought... keep the faith!)
Book writing obviously has been around long before programming. It seems odd you would make a reverse comparison....
Programming is like writing a book.
I didn't find the process to be all that similar (my book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0321294475/coasterbuzz-20). Working with A-W was more of a "big bang" delivery process than one of iterations. The editorial review process was a little like a code review though.
Same here for the book I wrote in '96 with Jeff. Much time was spent on the TOC that we wanted to change up but it was too late. It is very much a waterfall process in terms of working with publishers, but an iterative process when writing. I learned my lesson.
I'm now focusing more on ebooks, with my first one on volunteer leadership coming out soon. I must have changed the outline about 5 times before I got the reader experience right.
Jeff, James, I guess that the experience can vary depending on the publisher.
See my own experience: http://linqinaction.net/blogs/main/archive/2007/03/13/my-writing-experience.aspx
I've found that too. You start off with broad parameters, then the development/drafting is a process of refinement and refactoring.
The main difference between them (to my mind) is whether a book release 'works' or not - more of a subjective test metric that an objective one!
Oh, I most definitely agree re starting with a good table of contents. I was primary author of a couple of development books for NewRiders Press back in the early 90's ("Inside FoxPro for DOS" and "Inside FoxPro for Windows" -- I'm dating myself here). The publisher offered me the project based on what they termed the "lucidity" of my postings to a MSFT beta forum they were lurking on. But I initially turned it down because the Table of Contents / outline sucked. They said in effect, "well fine ... let's see YOUR outline" ... and the rest is history.
If you can't construct a book outline / TOC you probably can't write decent software. You have to know where you're going ... as you point out you'll refine it as you go but you can't just plow in and write what pops into your head ... you'll end up with a rambling, and possibly incoherent, book.
It would be interesting to find out how to do TDW (Test-Driven Writing) ;-)
Fabrice,
I totally agree - Jeff Schneider and I had Que as a publisher, who in '96 and '97 were going through some internal transitions that impacted the success of the book.
The lesson: pick your publisher carefully!
I've heard great things about Manning, even in the early days. Duane Fields, Mark Kolb, and I compared notes on the two publishers and they were worlds apart. I would consider writing another book, but it would have to be the right publisher first.
It was comforting to see that others share the same problems :)
I just spent a couple of months "remodeling" chapter 1 and "refactoting" chapter 2 before (finally) going back to writing new chapters