On-the-job learning in the software industry

1. Background --- 2. The Programmer's World --- 3. The Participants --- 4. Learning the Environment --- 5. Repertoires of Thinking --- 6. Written Materials --- 7. People as Resources --- 8. Working at the Computer ---- 9. Building the System --- 10. Models of Learning --- 11. Conclusions and Recommendations.

This book explores the daily work lives and learning experiences of programmers and other professionals in the computer-software industry. The book focuses on the staff of one small software firm, allowing workers to tell their own stories, describing their work and their use of all the resources available to them in learning the complex systems they are required to develop and maintain. Based in qualitative sociological method, it is an ethnography of a business setting as well as a study of learning.