Steve McConnell has spent most of his career focused on educating software professionals. He’s written many critically acclaimed books, including:

• Code Complete, 1st and 2nd editions
• Rapid Development
• Software Project Survival Guide
• Professional Software Development
• Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art

I’ve recently reviewed Code Complete 2nd edition myself, and am currently reading Rapid Development.

Steve spent 4 years from 1998 to 2002 volunteering as Editor in Chief of IEEE Software magazine. The magazine was dedicated to “Building the Community of Leading Software Practitioners.”

Steve’s favorite editorial was Cargo Cult Software Engineering which argued that the real issue at the heart of many quasi-technical debates was the competency of the staff doing the work.

From 2002 to 2006, Steve served as Chair of the IEEE Computer Society’s Professional Activities Board, which oversees graduate and undergraduate curriculum standards in software engineering, the software engineering body of knowledge, and the IEEE”s certification programs for professional software engineers – all about teaching software engineering and raising the standard of practice in the field.

Steve’s mission is advancing the state of the practice of software engineering. He believes that improved individual and team capabilities are the key to improved software project performance.

His company Construx Software Builders Inc. has been training and consulting for almost 20 years to around 50,000 software professionals.

Amongst his presentations, Steve presented his experience with the Personal Development Ladder during a keynote at the Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T).

He is now producing eLearning versions of his courses at https://cxlearn.com

Teaching Work in 2015

The cxlearn courses are now an ongoing focus for him. He has added his own Understanding Software Projects lecture series, distilling the understanding that he’s gained from the 2,000 books and articles that he’s read over the past 30 years.

He’s also been involved in launching the Construx Brain Cast series on YouTube. These are a selection of free short and accessible segments from the full courses.

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