Top 100 Books of SW Engineering

I just found out a great compilation of the top 100 books of Software Engineering. The method for computing the list involves Amazon ratings, Jolt Awards and Google hits, so it's as scientific as it can get...

Looking at the list makes for a tremendous wish-list/bookshelf:

#
Author(s) / Title

1
Steve McConnell

Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction (2nd Edition)

2
Elisabeth Freeman, etc.

Head First Design Patterns

3
Steve McConnell

Rapid Development

4
Erich Gamma

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software

5
Bruce Schneier

Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code (2nd Edition)

6
Robert C. Martin

Agile Software Development: Principles, Patterns and Practices

7
Joel Spolsky

Joel on Software

8
Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (2nd Edition)

9
Frederick P. Brooks

The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)

10
Martin Fowler

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code

11
Mike Cohn

Agile Estimating and Planning

12
Alistair Cockburn

Writing Effective Use Cases

13
Bertrand Meyer

Object-Oriented Software Construction (2nd Edition)

14
Steve McConnell

Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art

15
Mike Cohn

User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development

16
Donald E. Knuth

The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-3 Boxed Set (2nd Edition)

17
Martin Fowler

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

18
Jeffrey Friedl

Mastering Regular Expressions

19
Andrew Hunt, David Thomas

The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

20
Karl E. Wiegers

Software Requirements (2nd Edition)

The full article is at Top 100 Best Software Engineering Books, Ever.

Marcas Technorati: Architecture,Programming,Project Management,Books

Does Microsoft Certification Matter?

A while ago, I found the following discussion about certification in http://www.theserverside.net/news/thread.tss?thread_id=32963.

In my opinion, Certification does matter. Of course it doesn't replace real world experience in projects, and it doesn't assure the quality of the certified people. But it does validate some basic knowledge, and gives some new insights in some aspects that aren't often used in a day to day basis.

Another aspect is the recognition/valuation of the certification: as more people get certified and the certification spreads, the less value the certification has (even because some tricks used in the exams are widely known)

Microsoft acknowledges this situation, and launched a new generation of certifications (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/newgen/), topped by the MCA for the top Architects.

Update: A new article (http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/17/47OPanalysts_1.html), questions the value of certifications, as average pay for IT certifications dropped 2% between 1/Jul and 1/Oct.

HR and Interviewing

The IT job market is on the rise again. It’s been ramping up for some time, but the clear sign, is the “movement” on the companies, people leaving and new people getting in, and the blogoshpere with articles about interviews.
Employers can no longer be laxist about the employees, or they will leave. And everyone wants to find the best people.

To Joel Spolsky, from the famous Joel on Software, hiring is about getting the best people. Period. As the gap between excellent and average programmers is 10x, it pays up to find the best. The best people, are not only very smart but people that gets things done (pragmatic). And that’s what his company tries to do. They interview by phone, and the smartest are flown to New York, with everything paid, for a personal interview.
(http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/GuerrillaInterviewing3.html)

To Mini (from Mini-Microsoft fame), the solution to overcome the peak in the competition for talents between employers, that leads to hiring of not so good programmers, would be to create a Microsoft Academy, to teach the main technologies used inside MS. That way, people with potential and motivated would graduate and be ready to integrate the team that best fits them, while other people would wash-out (the course would be very hard and intense).
Even to switch groups inside Microsoft, people could get the training and skills from the courses teached, giving microsofties a real chance to control their careers, and Microsoft a chance to internally reorganize, getting people in their correct positions and motivated.
(http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2006/11/microsoft-academy.html)

On the employers side, HR is getting even harder.
As the demand goes up, so goes the salary. And with big payments, everyone tries their hardest to make the cut. Embelishing the resumé, or even outright lying! To counter that, employers are paying detectives to investigate references, neighbours and past employers to check CVs, references and even neighbours.
(http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-cv-detectives/)

To end up, here are some links related to interviewing for DBA, questions:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/2686.asp (interview questions)
http://www.geekinterview.com/articles/sql-interview-questions-with-answers.html