Fundamentals of Software Engineering: From Coder to Engineer

What do you need to know to be a successful software engineer? Undergraduate curricula and bootcamps may teach the fundamentals of algorithms and writing code, but they rarely cover topics vital to your career advancement. With this practical book, you'll learn the skills you need to succeed and thrive.

Authors Nathaniel Schutta and Dan Vega guide your journey with everything from pointers to deep dives into specific topic areas that will help you build the skills that really matter as a software engineer.

• Understand what software engineering is--and why communication and other soft skills matter
• Learn the basics of software architecture and architectural drivers
• Use common and proven techniques to read and refactor code bases
• Understand the importance of testing and how to implement an effective test suite
• Learn how to reliably and repeatedly deploy software
• Know how to evaluate and choose the right solution or tool for a given problem

Author: Nathaniel Schutta,Dan Vega
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Published: 12/09/2025
Pages: 404
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.41lbs
Size: 9.19h x 7.00w x 0.83d
ISBN: 9781098143237

About the Author
Schutta, Nathaniel: - Nathaniel T. Schutta is a software architect focused on cloud computing and building usable applications. A proponent of polyglot programming, Nate has written multiple books and appeared in various videos. Nate is a seasoned speaker regularly presenting at conferences worldwide, No Fluff Just Stuff symposia, meetups, universities, and user groups. In addition to his day job, Nate is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota where he teaches students to embrace (and evaluate) technical change. Driven to rid the world of bad presentations, Nate coauthored the book Presentation Patterns with Neal Ford and Matthew McCullough. Nate also published Thinking Architecturally and Responsible Microservices available as free downloads from VMware.Vega, Dan: - Nathaniel T. Schutta is a software architect and Java Champion focused on cloud computing, developer happiness, and building usable applications. A proponent of polyglot programming, Nate has written multiple books and appeared in countless videos and many podcasts. He's also a seasoned speaker who regularly presents at worldwide conferences, meetups, universities, and user groups. In addition to his day job, Nate is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches students to embrace (and evaluate) technical change. Driven to rid the world of bad presentations, he coauthored the book Presentation Patterns with Neal Ford and Matthew McCullough, and he also published Thinking Architecturally and Responsible Microservices, which are available from O'Reilly.