Code Complete

This article is about the software development book. For the software release life cycle stage "code complete", see Software release life cycle.

Code Complete

First edition cover
Author	Steve McConnell
Language	English
Subject	Computer programming
Published	1993 (1st ed.) 2004 (2nd ed.)
Publication place	United States
Pages	914 (2nd ed.)
ISBN	ISBN 978-0-7356-1967-8 (2nd ed.)
LC Class	QA75.5-76.95

Code Complete is a software development book, written by Steve McConnell and published in 1993 by Microsoft Press, urging developers to get past code and fix programming and the big design up front waterfall model. It is also a compendium of software construction techniques, from naming variables to deciding when to write a subroutine.

Summary

McConnell defines the main activities in construction as:

• detailed design
• construction planning
• coding and debugging
• unit testing
• integration, and
• integration testing

Although he does not dismiss the value of other aspects of software development such as requirements and documentation, McConnell emphasizes the construction of software because:

• Construction is a large part of software development.
• Construction is the central activity in software development.
• With a focus on construction, the individual programmer's productivity can improve enormously.
• The source code defines the operation of the software; if code and documentation disagree, the documentation is wrong.
• Construction is the only activity that's guaranteed to be done.

Reception

Code Complete has received outstanding reviews, being widely regarded as one of the leading must-reads for software developers. It won a Jolt Award in 1993.

The first edition is superseded with Code Complete 2. The first editions can be found used and are still relevant for programmers using C, Pascal and GW-BASIC

Editions

• ISBN 978-1-55615-484-3 First edition (1993)
• ISBN 978-0-7356-1967-8 Second edition (June 2004)

External links

• Steve McConnell's website
• Code Complete Checklists