About the Book

Even those who know little about computers will find this a very accessible and enjoyable work. Including many pictures it takes a walk through IT history from punched cards and paper tape forward to today's tiny embedded systems. Until you understand the journey IT went through you cannot understand why Waterfall SDLC is the only valid Software Engineering method and why AGILE is just the latest in a long history of names used to justify "hacking on the fly."

The author of this title has spent over 30 years in IT working on multi-country corporate applications before there was an Internet, to stock exchange trading floor systems, desktop applications, and even multiple medical devices. This allows for a broad perspective. Some information was gleaned from a former manager who started developing large corporate systems in the 1960s. Some of his code existed in multiple IBM mainframe operating systems and might yet exist today in z/OS. This is an attempt to transfer roughly 50 years of IT experience to the next generation. Most of it is done from the 10,000 foot level with some (hopefully) humorous essays scattered throughout the book to keep this both light and informative.