Jerry Weinberg Foreward

Forward to Journey of the Software Professional

by Jerry Weinberg

It's customary, when writing a forward, to say, "I couldn't put the book down." I can't say that about Journey of the Software Professional. I not only could put it down, I had to put it down, and often.

Journey is not, as it's title might imply, a biography. Nor is it a pleasant fiction furnishing an evening's entertainment. Instead, Journey is a compendium of ideas--ideas deriving from a comprehensive model of software development as problem solving. The "journey" in the title is the acquisition of hundreds or thousands of ideas accumulating in the mind of any person who is to be an effective software developer. It's this massive accumulation of ideas that makes it impossible to read this impressive book without setting it down.

As I read, I would find an idea that would force me to stop and ask, "Do I agree with this? How does it relate to other ideas? How could I apply this with my clients?" Sometimes I didn't agree (though not often), so I had to depart from the journey onto a long side trip ending in confirmation or conversion. Sometimes I couldn't relate this idea to others in the book, so I would detour back and forth among the various sections. And, sometimes, I couldn't think of a way to apply the idea to my own clients, so I had to discuss the idea with some of them.

Eventually, I came to understand the "Journey" in a different way. It is not the career journey of some sociological average software professional. It is, rather, the journey of one particular software professional--me, the reader. It is a journey through the book and through the labyrinth of ideas that I've accumulated in the forty-odd years of my life as a software professional. Thus, for each new reader, it will be a new journey.

To complete a journey through a labyrinth, you need a model--either a map or an algorithm to guide your escape. To navigate a particularly rich labyrinth, such as the accumulation of ideas that form the sum total of learning in a professional lifetime, most of us need more than one map. Although I have several models of my own to map my way, Luke Hohmann guided me through my personal labyrinth using yet another--his model of problem solving. This model made it possible for me to take a fresh, pleasurable, and productive journey through what I thought was familiar
territory.

In many ways, it opened my eyes. If you are a software professional, I think it will open yours as well.

Home lhohmann@acm.org Order Journey of the Software Professional