Why do I need to learn about software construction?

Knowing how to write code does not mean that you know how to create real-world software.

In real world projects, you will need to know how to manage your code, how to read the existing code, how to write code following standard styles, how to ensure that your code is working, how to automate your the process of building, testing and deploying your code, how to handle errors in your application, how to optimize your code for better speed, how to write secure code, how to avoid code duplication, how to create readable code, how to create code faster.

That’s why you need to learn about software construction.

What can I do after finishing learning software construction?

You will know how to create real world software with a team.

Hmm! Is it really useful?

If you doubt its usefulness then you can delay learning it until you are tasked to create a software system and you complete a half of it and are stuck there because when you add one more feature you will get tons of bugs due to the new code, or when you finish fixing 1 bug, you get 3 other bugs due to the code modification.

An other scenario is when it takes another person 2 weeks to read 1000 lines of the code that you wrote in order to fix a bug or to add a new feature because your code is unstructured.

Another scenario is when you are asked to improve some existing code for better performance or to refactor some code for clarity before adding a new feature but you do not know how to accomplish the task.

Alright! What should I do now?

First, please read this book to get familar with the core software construction activities: Steve McConnell (2004). Code Complete. Microsoft Press.

After that, please read this book to gain hands-on experience with using Git for managing source code versions: Jon Loeliger and Matthew McCullough (2012). Version Control with Git: Powerful Tools and Techniques for Collaborative Software Development. O’Reilly Media.

Alternatively, you can read this book to gain hands-on experience with using Subversion for managing source code versions: Ben Collins-Sussman et al. (2011). Version Control with Subversion.

After that, please read this book to learn about continuous code integration: Paul M. Duvall et al. (2007). Continuous Integration Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk. Addison-Wesley.

After that, please read this book to learn how to write readable, maintainable code: Robert C. Martin (2009). Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Pearson Education.

After that, please read the two books below to learn how to write and run unit tests:

• Andy Hunt, Dave Thomas and Matt Hargett (2007). Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit. Pragmatic Bookshelf
• Kent Beck (2002). Test Driven Development: By Example. Addison Wesley

After that, After that, please read the two books below to learn how to convert existing unstructured, hard-to-test code into readable and maintainable code:

• Martin Fowler et al. (1999). Refactoring Improving The Design Of Existing Code. Addison Wesley
• Martin Fowler (2019). Refactoring. Improving the Design of Existing Code. 2nd Edition. Addison-Wesley Professional

If you have to work with legacy code, please read the two books below to learn how to read and maintain it in a structured way:

• Michael Feathers (2004). Working Effectively with Legacy Code. Prentice Hall PTR
• Diomidis Spinellis et al. (2003). Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective. Addison-Wesley Professional

After that, you will need to learn:

• how to use a data provider to access data sources. For this, read: Matthew MacDonald and Bill Hamilton (2003). ADO.NET in a Nutshell. O’Reilly Media
• how to use an ORM to access data sources. For this, read: Brian L. Gorman (2020). Practical Entity Framework. Apress.
• how to use an ORM with mapping techniques to access data sources. For this, read: Suhas Chatekar (2015). Learning NHibernate 4. Packt Publishing.
• how to use a reporting framework. For this, read: Brian Larson (2017). Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services. McGraw-Hill Education.
• how to use authentication and authorization frameworks and libraries. For this, read: Justin Richer and Antonio Sanso (2017). OAuth 2 in Action. Manning Publications.
• how to reduce a web application’s response time. For this, read: Matt Perdeck (2010). ASP.NET Site Performance Secrets. Packt Publishing.

If you are not familiar with .NET, please find equivalent books to complete the tasks using other technologies or frameworks.

After that, please read the two books below to learn how to use Docker and Kubernetes or deploying and operating software:

• Elton Stoneman (2020). Learn Docker in a Month of Lunches. Manning Publications
• Elton Stoneman (2021). Learn Kubernetes in a Month of Lunches. Manning Publications

You can learn the basic concepts of Kubernetes with the book, and then try exploring the tool using the official documentation if you encounter any issues with the example code in the book.

After that, please read this book to learn how to use Terraform to provision resources for deploying and operating software: Yevgeniy Brikman (2022). Terraform – Up and Running. O’Reilly Media.

Terminology Review:

• Version Control.
• Coding Standards.
• Unit Tests.
• Continuous Integration.
• Refactoring.
• Legacy Code.
• Code Reading.
• Data Providers.
• Object/Relational Mapping (ORM).
• Reporting Services.
• Authentication.
• Authorization.
• OAuth 2.
• Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE).
• JSON Web Token (JWT).
• OpenID Connect (OIDC).
• The Backend for Frontend Pattern.
• Performance.
• Containers.
• Container Images.
• Container Image Layers.
• Docker.
• Docker CLI.
• Dockerfiles.
• Docker Volumes.
• Bind Mounts.
• Docker Compose.
• Container Orchestrator.
• Swarm.
• Kubernetes.
• Deployments.
• ReplicaSets.
• Pods.
• Deployment Manifest.
• ClusterIP Services.
• LoadBalancer Services.
• NodePort Services.
• ExternalName Services.
• headless Services.
• Namespaces.

After finishing software construction, please click on Topic 12 – Software Testing to continue.