Shipping Greatness: Practical Lessons On Building And Launching Outstanding Software, Learned On The Job At Google And Amazon--New From O'Reilly Media

Online, September 12, 2012 (Newswire.com) - There's a reason why Amazon and Google have been successful software companies--they know how to ship. Product and engineering expert Chris Vander Mey (@ShippingChris) tells readers how he learned to ship great software at these companies in "Shipping Greatness: Practical lessons on building and launching outstanding software, learned on the job at Google and Amazon" ($21.99 USD). It provides a simplified, no-BS approach to the entire software lifecycle.

"Shipping software is one of the most important jobs you can do," notes Vander Mey. "There are recipes readers can follow that will save you pain and time as you try to build and launch your software. They need to invest time to read, to learn, and to incorporate these processes and techniques into the process, and the road will be bumpy at times, but overall it will be more efficient and both the customers and team will be happier."

In the first part of the book, readers will learn a step-by-step shipping process used by many of the best teams at Google and Amazon. Part II shows them the techniques, best practices, and skills they need to face an array of challenges in product, program, project, and engineering management.

Readers will learn how to:

- Clearly define the product and develop a mission and strategy
- Assemble a team and understand enough about systems to communicate with them
- Create a beautiful, intuitive, and simple user experience
- Track the team's deliverables and closely manage the testing process
- Communicate clearly to gracefully handle requests, senior-management interactions, and feedback from various sources
- Build metrics to track progress, spot problems, and celebrate success
- Stick to the launch checklist and plan for marketing and PR

Advance Praise
"'Shipping Greatness' condenses years of experience on working with world class products into an accessible, practical guide. Whether you're looking for reference as an aspiring software leader, or need a handbook to keep everyone on the same page, it is a must-have guide for software leaders. Intensely practical advise that I've seen applied on the best products, built from startups through to Google, Microsoft and Disney."
--Mike Smith, CTO Disney Interactive

"'Shipping Greatness' is a perfectly-sized primer on how to lead a software project--readers will gain great appreciation of the entire shipping process from several levels--enough, even, to role-play for others on the team in a pinch. In full geek-out terms, it's quite possibly the "Dungeon Master's Guide" of anyone's set of technology business volumes."
--Matt Shobe, User experience designer, co-founder of FeedBurner.com

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For a review copy or more information please email [email protected]. Please include your delivery address and contact information.

About the Author
Chris Vander Mey is a former Google product manager and Amazon engineering manager, and has held multiple roles in small startups. He has a Master of Engineering Management from Dartmouth College and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia. He started writing code two decades ago and has shipped software to hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses.

Additional Resources
For more information about the book, including table of contents, author bios, and cover graphic, see:
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920026341.do