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Facts and Fallacies of Software EngineeringBook

by Robert L. Glass

Who uses, recommends or left Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

1 person

Adam Tornhill
Swedish programmer with degrees in engineering and psychology; author of Your Code as a Crime Scene and founder of CodeScene.
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Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering by Robert L. Glass. In essence, this is a book about an industry that refuses to learn. That was true 25 years ago when this book was published, and it's probably twice as true today. (Just think about all the AI adoption metrics being rolled out — back to productivity mistaken for lines of code produced, only more elaborate. And expensive). What I like about this book is that Glass doesn't present anything new. Quite the opposite, actually. Rather, it's about research lessons that we all should know, but tend to forget. Ever had to do an estimate, or plan according to a requirements spec? Or maybe you thought that enough eyeballs make all bugs shallow? Then this book is for you. A great work by a fantastic author.

A post naming the pre-2015 programming books that changed how he thinks about code, plus his take on the usual classics.

2026-08-11·adamtornhill.substack.com ↗

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