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Hello! Karl Wiegers here. I’m doing something right know that I’ve never done before: co-authoring a book. It’s a new experience for me, but it’s going remarkably well. I’ve written several articles with co-authors over the years, which went fine, but nothing like the scale of the book. If you’ve ever...

Hello! Joy here. I was recently in the middle of my workday and I leaned back in my chair, looked around, and had to laugh. What I saw is the picture below. This is what my life has come to: a pile of Microsoft Press books! And it’s actually somewhat of a coincidence: I was doing research for the...

Check out this new podcast featuring Microsoft Press author, Joy Beatty. In her words, “I think business analysts, product managers, and those who manage them will find the requirements approaches discussed – and how to cut scope while ensuring the business objectives are met and the users...

Written by Joy Beatty, co-author of Visual Models for Software Requirements (ISBN: 9780735667723). Joy Beatty here. As business analysts, if we hand developers nothing more than a list of thousands of “system shall” requirements statements, the project is doomed to fail before...

We’re happy to announce that Visual Models for Software Requirements (ISBN 9780735667723; 480 pages) is now available for purchase! Written by Joy Beatty and Anthony Chen—experts in software requirements methodologies—this book provides IT business analysts a plethora of best-practice techniques on how...

We are delighted to announce that Visual Models for Software Requirements , by Joy Beatty and Anthony Chen, has shipped to the printer! Hard copies should begin being shipped from our distributor to customers in the next couple weeks. If you’re a business analyst or product manager who is looking for...

Save 15% through June 15, 2012 at Amazon.com. Click here and look for the coupon in the book’s detail page. How to Redeem the Coupon: You must be signed into your account at Amazon. To apply a coupon offer to a qualifying item, add coupon in one of two ways: Click on the coupon offer on the item detail...

The following review is republished here with the permission of Robert L. Glass . The review appears in the May-June 2012 issue (Volume 22, No. 3) of The Software Practitioner , a bimonthly newsletter “written by and for people who build software for a living.” (Thank you, Bob!) Software Change Management...

Today we’d like to share a sampler from the recently published Software Change Management: Case Studies and Practical Advice , by Donald J. Reifer . The sampler (2.97 MB) contains two complete chapters—Chapter 6, “Industrial Case: Utility Moving to the Clouds,” and Chapter 9, “Government Case: Introducing...

One of the cool things about being on a documentation team at Microsoft is the chance to see all the work that goes in to producing the learning and supporting materials for the new products. When the product happens to be a huge release, such as Windows 8, the efforts are massive. Documentation white...

Today is Thursday! Yep, the week is nearly finished. It has been an exciting week, highlighted by conducting a week's worth of Live Meetings that have been attended by a couple thousand people . If history is any indication, the series of five live meetings will be downloaded many many more times than...

Today we’d like to quickly point you to an article written by Dana Epp called “ The Evolution of Elevation: Threat Modeling in a Microsoft World ,” which begins like this: “I’ve been asked to give a history of threat modeling from the perspective of an outsider looking at Microsoft. While I’m flattered...

Good news! Software Change Management: Case Studies and Practical Advice , by Donald J. Reifer, is now available for purchase. Donald J. Reifer is one of the leading figures in the field of systems/software engineering and management, with over 40 years of progressive experience. He has built businesses...

Donald Reifer here. Many firms are currently searching for ways to save money and cut cycle time in these times of economic contraction. To achieve these ends, many are trying to find ways to cut their costs and spur productivity growth. For example, some are simplifying their software development processes...

You can read a pretty in-depth review of Eric Brechner’s I. M. Wright’s “Hard Code”: A Decade of Hard-Won Lessons from Microsoft (Second Edition) at the ZDNet UK Book Reviews site. The review is by Mary Branscombe, and it begins like this: What's it like to work at Microsoft...

Yesterday we blogged about Don Reifer’s new Microsoft Press book, Software Change Management: Case Studies and Practical Advice (ISBN: 9780735664753): Why is it so difficult to change organizations? What does it really take to make “process improvement” yield measurable results?...

We’re very eager to announce that Software Change Management: Case Studies and Practical Advice (9780735664753, Page count 192), by Donald J. Reifer, has shipped to the printer. Why is it so difficult to change organizations? What does it really take to make “process improvement”...

Yes, autumn approaches and it is time to think about your winter reading. All you Exchange gurus will want to check out these 5-star titles. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Inside Out (9870735640610) by Tony Redmond gives you a deep dive into Exchange Server 2010 and SP1. Find out what Exchange...

Many of you know Steve McConnell’s Code Complete . It’s been one of our most popular books since the first edition was published in 1993 and after we published Steve’s update, the second edition, in 2004. We see this through Amazon reviews , responses to our anonymous survey ( http...

Greetings! This post describes another of our recent Best Practices books for developers: Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises , by Roger Sessions. (The book’s ISBN is 9780735625784, and its length is a simple 208 pages.) Roger’s website is here , and his blog is here . Roger is...

Microsoft Press is thrilled to be working with Ken Schwaber again! Ken will be writing a third book, titled Agile Product Management, in our Best Practices series. This book will describe how to rapidly take advantage of software development opportunities while controlling risk. In 2004, Ken published...

Everybody, in our long stream of “New book” posts since we launched our blog in January 2009, in which we describe over 130 books we’ve published in the last couple of years, we apparently missed a book: Solid Code   (ISBN: 9780735625921; 352 pages), by Donis Marshall and John Bruno. Well, better...

We’re very happen to announce that the second, newly expanded edition of I. M. Wright’s “Hard Code”: A Decade of Hard-Won Lessons from Microsoft , by Eric Brechner is available for purchase. (Print ISBN 9780735661707; Page Count 448). Here is an excerpt from Chapter 5, “Software...

We’re thrilled to announce that the second edition of I. M. Wright’s “Hard Code”: A Decade of Hard-Won Lessons from Microsoft , by Eric Brechner, has been sent to the printer and will be available for purchase next month. (Print ISBN 9780735661707; Page Count 448). In this...

Greetings, software developers. We have a request today: would you be willing to give us feedback on a chapter John Fox is working on (for a book titled The Soft Side of Software Engineering )? We’ll include the chapter here, as well as a link to a Word version of the chapter (in case you’d like to comment...