Antipatterns (Applied Software Engineering Series) / Neill, Colin J.

Emphasizing leadership principles and practices, Antipatterns: Managing Software Organizations and People, Second Edition catalogs 49 business practices that are often precursors to failure. This updated edition of a bestseller not only illustrates bad management approaches, but also covers the bad work environments and cultural traits commonly found in IT, software development, and other business domains. For each antipattern, it describes the situation and symptoms, gives examples, and offers a refactoring solution.

The authors, graduate faculty at Penn State University, avoid an overly scholarly style and infuse the text with entertaining sidebars, cartoons, stories, and jokes. They provide names for the antipatterns that are visual, humorous, and memorable. Using real-world anecdotes, they illustrate key concepts in an engaging manner. This updated edition sheds light on new management and environmental antipattems and includes a new chapter, six updated chapters, and new discussion questions. Topics covered include leadership principles, environmental antipatterns, group patterns, management antipatterns, and team leadership.

Following introductory material on management theory and human behavior, the text catalogs the full range of management, cultural, and environmental antipatterns. It includes thought-provoking exercises that each describe a situation, ask which antipatterns are present, and explain how to refactor the situation. It provides time-tested advice to help you overcome bad practices through successful interaction with your clients, customers, peers, supervisors, and subordinates.