Review By: C. David Moye
10/29/2008Scott L. Bain's "Emergent Design", the newest book in Net Objectives' Product Development Series, is an excellent comprehensive survey of modern software engineering practices and principles. Scott's personable and witty writing style makes it easy (and even fun!) to digest abstract topics, such as open-closed and the use of mock objects. The title of the book is a bit misleading though. The topics covered certainly contribute to the ability to allow designs to emerge by increasing agility and gives a nod to the fact that all requirements change over time; but the only example of how to allow a design to emerge as you go is a brief case study in the next-to-last chapter. Given the value provided by the treatment of the topics in the book however, this misnomer is easily forgiven.

For example, despite its name, Appendix B (Overview of Patterns Used in the Examples) is actually a nice stand-alone treatise on some of the more common and useful patterns available to software engineers. Instead of falling into the common trap of simply rehashing the canonical Gang of Four definitions, it takes a novel approach covering the forces (contextual, implementation, and consequent) involved with selected or using each pattern, and provides excellent analogies to both analog and digital examples.

Overall, I think that the book is topical to the emerging profession of software development. It offers new perspectives and provides greater depth on topics that are considered by some (too many) to be voodoo magic, such as automated unit testing, refactoring, test-driven and test-first development. In addition, it introduces new concepts, such as commonality-variability analysis (inspired in part by James Coplien’s Ph.D. thesis and subsequent book Multi-Paradigm Design) and the notion that software value does not have to decay over time. It would make a worthy addition to the library of mid-to-senior level software developers interested in being a part of transforming their craft into a profession. However, only if they actually read it, put the lessons learned into practice, and transfer them to the next generation, will the author's vision of a true software development profession materialize.