bdn: how many years experience do you have as a programmer?
steve: i've been working in the software industry for 19 years.
bdn: what languages do you work with? which ones do you currently utilize?
steve: i've done most of my programming in c++ and visual basic.
bdn: would you recommend a career in programming to young people today?
steve: yes.
bdn: what courses would you recommend they take? what languages/technologies should they key on?
steve: i would recommend that a young person think hard about enrolling in one of the many undergraduate software engineering degree programs that has sprung up in the past 5 years. i would expressly not focus on languages/technologies. i think the programs that focus on software engineering generally tend to focus on more long-lasting principles, and those will be what serve a programmer for a long chunk of his or her career.
bdn: which software project/product that you have participated in are you most proud of?
steve: obviously, i'm proud of my books. i wrote most of the code for spc estimate professional 2.0, which won a software development magazine productivity award. i'm proud of that work because i think it showed that i'm not just writing about software from an academic perspective, but when i apply the principles i've written about the results are literally award quality. i worked on windows 3.1 on true type, which was very cool technology for its day. i'm also proud of work i did on some vertical market applications that are less well known.
bdn: what project[s] are you currently working on?
steve: my focus the past few years has been on building and running my company, construx software. i wear the hats of both ceo and chief software engineer at construx, and we've been producing many things that i think have the potential to be extremely helpful to the industry. we've produced a professional development ladder that both individuals and organizations can use to provide meaningful, structured career paths for most software professionals including programmers, testers, analysts, and project managers. we've produced a software engineering framework called cxone that provides numerous tools that software professionals can use to jumpstart and accelerate their process improvement efforts. many of these resources are downloadable from our website at www.construx.com.
bdn: what is the name of your businss?
steve: construx software. www.construx.com.
bdn: if you weren't a programmer, what do you think you'd be?
steve: i think it would be cool to be a civil engineer. you'd get to build roads, bridges, dams. you'd get to sit in those huge earth moving trucks. you'd get to use dynamite. how can you beat that?
bdn: what is your favorite programming book?
steve: maybe psychology of computer programming by gerald weinberg.
bdn: steve, thank you for your time, thoughtful answers, and your great books (especially code complete).
