Feature Driven Development

Object Models: Strategies, Patterns, and Applications (2nd Edition) author: Peter Coad David North Mark Mayfield asin: 0138401179 binding: Paperback list price: $85.00 USD amazon price: $77.08 USD

Peter Coad was way ahead of the pack (including the GoF and the amigos) and was by far the best modeler I'd ever seen (he's now retired). This is an old book but still a gem. As well as learning modeling by example, in this book you can also see the roots of the four class categories that later became the four color archetypes.

A Practical Guide to Feature-Driven Development (The Coad Series) author: Stephen R. Palmer John M. Felsing asin: 0130676152 binding: Paperback list price: $39.99 USD amazon price: $32.92 USD

Written by Steve Palmer - a great Chief Programmer.

Agile Software Development Ecosystems author: Jim Highsmith asin: 0201760436 binding: Paperback list price: $54.99 USD amazon price: $46.12 USD

The only book that discusses all the founding Agile methods in one place. Read it and one or two of the methods will resonate with you. They're the ones you'll want to explore further - with one caveat. What resonates for you may not resonate with your company. You have to able to sell it.

Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms author: James O. Coplien asin: 0201548550 binding: Paperback list price: $59.99 USD amazon price: $59.99

Functors. Yeah!

The Logic of Failure author: Dietrich Dorner asin: 0201479486 binding: Paperback list price: $19.00 USD amazon price: $12.92 USD

Subtitle: Recognizing and avoiding error in complex situations.

I haven't read many great books for a while and so it was a real joy when I bought this one. An excellent book with many lessons in it and again, not based on speculation but on research, measurement, experimentation and analysis. From one of the studies: "the good participants made more decisions than the bad ones," "both the good and bad participants did not differ in the frequency with which they developed hypotheses," "the good participants differed from the bad ones however, in how often they tested their hypotheses."

Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is author: Donald C. Gause; Gerald M. Weinberg asin: 0932633161 binding: Paperback list price: $13.95 USD amazon price: $12.55 USD

A great book on problem solving. People that have seen me speak about how visually expressive and visually explicit models are compared to how ambiguous and vague the written word can be, will recognize the "Mary had a little lamb" example from this book. Anything written by Weinberg is worth reading.