About the Author

Steve McConnell is CEO and Chief Software Engineer at Construx Software, where he writes books and articles, teaches classes, and oversees Construx's software engineering practices. He is the author of Code Complete (1993), Rapid Development (1996), and Software Project Survival Guide (1998). His books have twice won Software Development magazine's Jolt Excellence award for outstanding software development book of the year. In 1998, readers of Software Development magazine named Steve one of the three most influential people in the software industry along with Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds. Steve was Editor in Chief of IEEE Software magazine from 1998 2002. He is on the Panel of Experts that advises the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) project and is Vice Chair of the IEEE Computer Society's Professional Practices Committee.

Steve earned a bachelor's degree from Whitman College and a master's degree in software engineering from Seattle University. He lives in Bellevue, Washington.

If you have any comments or questions about this book, please contact Steve at [e-mail] or via his Web site, www.stevemcconnell.com.