Our Library
This is what we're reading at the moment:
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The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity Alan Cooper This should be compulsory reading for anyone who works in (or commissions) software development. It is an easy read and covers why increasing amounts of technology don’t seem to be doing the job they should. If there’s one think to take from the whole book it is this: software shouldn’t make users feel stupid. |
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Business Process Management: A Practical Guide Rashid N. Khan The author, Rashid Khan, is the CEO of Ultimus and co-founded the company in 1995. This book is great because it explains in very simple terms what BPM is and how you can use it. When you become a Quixa customer you’ll receive a complementary copy. |
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About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design Alan Cooper Alan Cooper’s more detailed book about good and bad usability when you are developing applications. It is an excellent reference book to consult when you’re thinking "how should we do this"… |
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Prioritizing Web Usability Jakob Nielsen We love Jakob Nielsen because he writes about the result of real user testing – so he doesn’t say "I think" but says "I have seen users struggle with this, but not that" – we call this evidence-based design. There are so many guidelines for web usability however this book is excellent as it picks the important stuff. Along with the book Jakob’s website is worth reading. |
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Integrating Agile Development in the Real World Peter Schuh We love visual prototyping, iterative development and test driven development. We’re also big fans of “no surprise” project management and for larger projects will drift to Prince2. This book is great because it takes agile methods (such as XP) and works out how you can use them in a real environment. |
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IT Governance: A Manager's Guide to Data Security and BS 7799/ IS0 17799 Alan Calder and Steve Watkins ISO/IEC 27001:2005 has only recently replaced BS 7799/ IS0 17799, and this is the most comprehensive guide to all that it entails, used as a text book by the Open University. A good one for dipping into; quite tricky to read cover to cover. |
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Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Office of Government Commerce You’ll find this book on everyone’s desk at Quixa (apart from Roger’s, because you can’t find anything on his desk). Although we don’t manage every project using the full Prince methodology, we do use bits of Prince for all projects, especially in the early stages. |
