Looking 4 resources: Software development cycle / Software Usabil ity

["Carey Jennifer (Cry)" <jennifer -dot- carey -at- cdi -dot- cerberus -dot- ch>]

My goal is to become part of the development team and be involved in the
interface design.  I recognise that this is an ambitious and probably not
immediately-realisable goal, HOWEVER, I'm going to try.  But, before I
begin, I need to know more. The only think I'm absolutely sure I know now is
that I don't know enough. I'm plodding my way through our company's Quality
requirements for Software Development, but I don't know much about the
process in general. I've always written after the product has been coded,
and I've never had a say in its design or usability (until now, let's see
how they react). 

SO, I've searched the archives of TECHWR-L, I've searched Amazon.com, and
I've searched the web.  So far I've come up with:

Software Project Survival Guide, Steve McConnell
The Usability Engineering Lifecycle, Deborah J. Mayhew
Usability Engineering, Jakob Nielson

Before I go on buying spree, can any of you either confirm/deny the value of
any of these books, or recommend others that you've found useful?  On-line
resources would also be a VERY welcome addtion.

Please note that these topics don't need to be combined. I want to
understand the "traditional" development process and mentality before I
shoot my mouth off about changing it. 

(Maybe I won't want to after I understand it better).

Thanks so much for any info you can provide!

Jennifer

P.S., if you email me off the list, I'll just provide a summary at the end
of what you all recommend. thx.


Jennifer Carey, Technical Writer
Siemens Cerberus Dati
Milan, Italy


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