From the Author

All true craftsmen need the best tools to do their finest work, and programmers are no different. Java Power Tools delivers 30 open source tools designed to improve the development practices of Java developers in any size team or organization. Each chapter includes a series of short articles about one particular tool -- whether it's for build systems, version control, or other aspects of the development process -- giving you the equivalent of 30 short reference books in one package. No matter which development method your team chooses, whether it's Agile, RUP, XP, SCRUM, or one of many others available, Java Power Tools provides practical techniques and tools to help you optimize the process. The book discusses key Java development problem areas and best practices, and focuses on open source tools that can help increase productivity in each area of the development cycle, including: * Build tools including Ant and Maven 2 * Version control tools such as CVS and Subversion, the two most prominent open source tools * Quality metrics tools that measure different aspects of code quality, including CheckStyle, PMD, FindBugs and Jupiter * Technical documentation tools that can help you generate good technical documentation without spending too much effort writing and maintaining it * Unit Testing tools including JUnit 4, TestNG, and the open source coverage tool Cobertura * Integration, Load and Performance Testing to integrate performance tests into unit tests, load-test your application, and automatically test web services, Swing interfaces and web interfaces * Issue management tools including Bugzilla and Trac * Continuous Integration tools such as Continuum, Cruise Control, LuntBuild and Hudson If you are a Java developer, these tools can help improve your development practices, and make your life easier in the process. Lead developers, software architects and people interested in the wider picture will be able to gather from these pages some useful ideas about improving your project infrastructure and best practices.

About the Author

John Ferguson Smart has been involved in the IT industry since 1991, and in Java EE development since 1999. His specialties are Enterprise Java architecture and development, IT project management, mentoring and coaching. He has experience in open source Java technologies; and has worked on many large-scale Java EE projects for government and business in both hemispheres, involving international and offshore teams. More recently he has worked on a variety of Open Source Java projects with Equinox , a leading software development, training and consulting company based in New Zealand. He also writes technical articles in the Java field, and is currently working on Java Power Tools, a book about Open Source Java development tools. His technical blog can be found at http://weblogs.java.net/blog/johnsmart .