Review of Social Thinking--Software Practice (Hardcover)

This book is an interesting collection of essays on the soft elements of software engineering.Most of the essays deal with organizational and process aspects from a cross-functional perspective, and there is an emphasis on requirements and business/IT alignment in the overall theme of this collection.

Each of the five parts and 21 essays are grouped by a book structure that aligns to cross-functional cooperation from a software engineering point of view:
Part I Deconstructing
Chapter 1 -Developing and Embedding Autooperational Form Chapter 2 -On Foundational Categories in Software Development Chapter 3 -Making Use of Social Thinking: The Challenge of Bridging Activity Systems Chapter 4 -Challenging Traditions of Inquiry in Software Practice
Part II Informing
Chapter 5 -On Retrieving Skilled Practices: The Contribution of Ethnography to Software Development Chapter 6 -Representing and Modeling Collaborative Practices for Systems Development Chapter 7 -The Locales Framework: Making Social Thinking Accessible for Software Practitioners Chapter 8 -What Doesn't Fit: The "Residual Category" as Analytic Resource
Part III Grounding
Chapter 9 -On the Intertwining of Social and Technical Factors in Software Development Projects Chapter 10 -Software Practice is Social Practice Chapter 11 -"Yes-What Does That Mean?" Understanding Distributed Requirements Handling Chapter 12 -Doing Empirical Research on Software Development: Finding a Path between Understanding, Intervention, and Method Development
Part IV Organizing
Chapter 13 -Changing Work Practices in Design Chapter 14 -Information Systems Research and Information Systems Practice in a Network of Activities Chapter 15 -Reaching out for Commitments: Systems Development as Networking Chapter 16 -Participatory Organizational and Technological Innovation in Fragmented Work Environments Chapter 17 -Large-Scale Requirements Analysis as Heterogeneous Engineering
Part V Reorienting
Chapter 18 -Useware Design and Evolution: Bridging Social Thinking and Software Construction Chapter 19 -Discontinuities Chapter 20 -Localizing Self on the Internet: Designing for "Genius Loci" in a Global Context Chapter 21 -Intent, Form, and Materiality in the Design of Interaction Technology

Anyone who is concerned about business/IT alignment and software process improvement, especially readers who are working in a CMM Level 3 or above environment or in an IT or consulting organization that is a profit center will benefit from the many (if not all) of the ideas in this book.Even if some of the information is not actionable in your organization, it will cause you to view software engineering from multiple perspectives.

Product Description
Software practice--which includes software development, design, and use--needs to go beyond the traditional engineering framework. Drawing on a variety of social theory approaches, this book focuses on interdisciplinary cooperation in software practice. The topics discussed include the facilitation of collaborative software development, communication between developers and users, and the embedding of software systems in organizations.

About the Author
Yvonne Dittrich is Assistant Professor in the Software Development Group at IT University of Copenhagen.

Christiane Floyd is Professor in the Department of Informatics (Software Engineering Group) at the University of Hamburg.

Ralf Klischewski is Assistant Professor in the Department of Informatics (Software Engineering Group) at the University of Hamburg.

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