So I’ll change that now by writing about this book the “php architects Guide to Enterprise PHP Development”.

About the book

As with several of the other books I’ve read from PHP Architects, I expected the the Guide to Enterprise PHP Development to be well written, but lacking slightly in depth. After reading this book I have to say this holds true.

Deliberately a little light when it comes to the nitty gritty, I enjoyed reading this book, it reinforced the methodologies I already use and really awakened me to different options in the testing and deployment areas of the software development lifecycle.

The book is broad covering everything from hiring and building the ideal technical team and planning through to maintenance, and it does it all in 265 pages.

The book is as you can guess specifically written to the needs of a php enterprise development. It presents the best practices and principles of building and managing an enterprise application in succinct and accurate terms. Highlighting recommendations and if you are willing to listen a useful framework for making your application development successful.

There were several areas of this book which inspired me to think about my own development practices, my role in the workplace and rethink how I manage testing in particular in my own work.

It is easy to read a project management book and not apply most of what you read. This book makes all those things you would have ignored accessible to PHP projects. In a way you can show your boss and make changes in your project management and team structure.

Something new?

Nope, nothing new here. If you have read books on Agile or any project management lifecycle, you will have heard 95% of what this book has to offer before. However having read it front to back I recommend it highly for all PHP project managers employers and PHP developers working on or planning any sizeable php development.

In fact I strongly encourage developers and project managers to read this book.

Its direct relevance to PHP programming and project lifecycles is what makes this book worth reading. It doesn’t answer all the questions but puts you in the frame and shows you what questions you need to ask and where to look for answers.

My rating

Readability: 9/10
Length: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Relevance: 9/10

Overall: 9/10

I’ve really noticed peoples passion and energy for the work rise! This is great! I’ve love working with people who are really passionate for the job for the work and for learning.

This year I want to help to encourage change in the department and try to support the key workers and get their ideas worked out in the day to day practice of the work place.

We’ve made some progress already but in the coming year I hope to take big strides in pushing a new product out the door, I see these changes coming through all the people I work and the changes in our working practice we’re already starting to make.

In 2009 I’d like to start making more of some established technology and use it as a platform for my personal and professional development for instance:

Subversion

We’ve already started using this on some of our new projects and I’d like to start using this for all the projects i’m involved in by the new financial year. Its really fab and has seriously improved the reliability and testing of my own work.

Zend PHP Framework

Moving into 2009 I’d like to make more of this robust and comprehensive framework in my work more. You’ll be hearing more about this framework as I do more work with it I’ll post my experiences and how I worked around my problems, I’ll try and keep it useful though as I know there are alot of tutorials and blogs out there covering this already.

Mootools Javascript Framework

What a framework, I know, I know there are lots of frameworks out there for javascript, but Mootools is the easiest and most viable I’ve used so far, in 2009 I’d like to really get to grips with this and make my life easier! I’ll be posting my experiments and work in this for you all.

2009 is a year of change with the worlds economy on the verge of a substantial change, I am sure we will all need to learn to adapt to a rapidly changing work environment, I’ll post my recommendations for making yourself more valuable my experiences working in a medium size business in the Wales, I don’t see the changing economy as a problem but a chance to change, grow and become more valuable.

Happy new year everyone!