Book is a bit out of date, doesn't discuss the newest technologies, but if you need some good guidance on the how and why of development environments, this is a good choice.

Are you having a problem in choosing and using different tools to provide a satisfying software development environment? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Matthew B Doar, has done an outstanding job of writing a practical guide that is a collection of advice about real development environments.

Doar, begins by describing the different activities involved in producing a piece of software; open and closed software development; and some classic situations that arise when developing software products. Then, the author describes the different areas of software development. He continues by discussing the concepts such as integration and automation that are used throughout a development environment. Then, the author discusses how to use SCM tools to keep track of different versions of files. Then, he discusses tools for building software from source files. Next, the author discusses testing software. He also describes different bug tracking tools, what to look for in them, and what to avoid. Then, the author continues by describing some of the more common documentation tools and how they are used. Next, he discusses the process of releasing software. The author also discusses the problems of maintaining your environment, and how development environments can help with the maintenance of older software products. Then, he discusses ways to improve communication within your project. Finally, the author offers a standalone collection of observations about what a toolsmith does for a development environment, and some other decidedly nontechnical aspects of software developments environments.

The tools described in this most excellent book are mostly intended for small to medium-sized projects of up to around 200 developers. More importantly, this book recognizes that some progress in your software development environment is better than none.

It's much more common these days to see development environments that use standard tools for things like the build process, source management, testing, and so forth. But if you're just getting introduced to these areas of automation and control, how do you get a broad understanding of the issues and offerings without buying a ton of books that are far too detailed for what you need? Practical Development Environments by Matthew B. Doar addresses this need quite well...

Contents: Introduction; Project Basics; Project Concepts; Software Configuration Management; Building Software; Testing Software; Tracking Bugs; Documentation Environments; Releasing Products; Maintenance; Project Communication; Politics and People; How Tools Scale; Resources; Index

I like the way things are laid out here. Take the Tracking Bugs chapter for example... It starts out with a list of requirements that a tool needs to be able to do well in order to be useful in tracking bugs. Things like ease of data entry, easy review of bugs, tracing the history of a bug, generate reports, and so forth. Once the requirements are out there, then he examines some of the common tools available along with their pros and cons. There's the ever-present spreadsheet (not bad for something small and simple), Bugzilla, GNATS, FogBugz, JIRA, and TestTrack. Each of those products are covered in a page or two so that you can understand the history, strengths, current direction, and why you may or may not want to choose this particular tool. There's also no dogma here on whether something needs to be free/open source or not. Both commercial and open source packages are covered. This is followed by more general bug tracking system discussion, and then it all ends with a checklist of questions you should feel comfortable answering about your particular choice in this area. By the time you're done with a chapter on a particular subject, you should have a decent foundation on the concepts you need to know to make an informed choice.

It's not a book you'd mistake as a reference manual on any one (or more) tools, but that's not what it sets out to be. This is the book you'd want if you don't know what you don't know. If you keep that in mind, it delivers on its purpose.

Software development is big business, so it's always surprising just how awful software development tools can be.

After fourteen years of writing software under four different bug tracking systems and three different Source Control Management systems, about the only conclusion I've reached is that they're all bad in their own unique way.

The author of this book at least has the grace to admit this. He then, however, spends a lot of time contrasting and comparing various tools, and coming up with cheery new ways to say "They're both crap, but this one sucks less" without actually coming out and saying that.

Of course, about the only thing worse than mediocre SCM and bug tracking is none at all. So, assuming that you're not in a position to write your own development environment from scratch, this is a useful guide to the best of what's out there.

And, I have to admit, I'm keeping it within easy reach for ammunition next time someone tries to "fix" my development environment by switching tools underneath me. Whether I use it as a resource for reasoned debate or simply as a projectile weapon remains to be seen. Hint: I'm hoping for a hardback version.

Four stars.

Disclaimer: I have crossed paths professionally with the author of this book.

I've read this book. I've also read the review here by "Pick Notower". I don't see any connection between the book and that review. Maybe "P.N' is actually an AI reviewing program? If so, its grammar code needs some more work.