Using JAVA in the real world

[Bill Earnhardt]

Hi, I hope I haven't put this question in the wrong forum, if so my apologies. I did look in the book review forum first. But here goes.
I've found that after getting pretty comfortable with the basics of JAVA programming that I'd like to find a book or some other reference that offers help with how to interpret user requirements, create staight forward specs and then develop the code to implement the specs. Oh yeah, if possible, it should include how to effectively deal with changes to the spec.
I've read Head First Java (twice) which is GREAT and now I'm studying for the Programmers exam using the study guide prepared by the same authors. Again an excellent book.
I feel I have enough knowledge to begin applying JAVA but I'm finding that one of the hardest things to do is come up with real world type "business case" excercises in order to take a project from inception to implmentation.
If you have any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate.
Regards,
Bill

[Joe Ess]

Originally posted by Bill Earnhardt:
I'd like to find a book or some other reference that offers help with how to interpret user requirements, create staight forward specs and then develop the code to implement the specs. Oh yeah, if possible, it should include how to effectively deal with changes to the spec.

From Peopleware and the Mythical Man Month to movements like Extreme Programming, people have have tried to deal with these issues. They are much of what makes software an art rather than a science. The last time I was on a real development team with project managers we probably spent as much time desiging the process as we did about design the product. Once we thought we had a pretty good thing, management laid off the software engineers and one of the two project manager transferred to Florida. So it's back to square one for the next project. . .
[ November 20, 2003: Message edited by: Joe Ess ]

[Stan James]

I've been pushing Robert Martin's Agile Software Development lately. It covers a lot of OO design principles, but also builds a couple small systems from scratch showing the test-first technique of coding and designing. Not a full lifecycle with users and all that, but very illuminating.
He has a newer book on test driven development that I haven't seen, but in an interview he said it was a realistic view of how software development is done ... the interview sounded like a Dennis Miller rant on older non-agile methods, including some colorful language. Could be interesting!