Being mostly self-taught freestyle developer and having no experience of working in teams of professionals in serious software companies, having only a very general idea of how the software development is should really be done, I think I’ve came to a point, when I begin struggling from lack of order in my work. I think I should get acquainted with professional software development technologies to optimize my own productivity and to extend my choice of work by increasing capabilities to work in teams and bigger companies.
What should I begin with? Of course I am googling on this subject right now, but maybe hou have some real experience based recommendations to share?
First you need to realize that the world of professional software development is full of hype. The trend right now is around agile methodologies, such as SCRUM or XP. But some of the practices advocated by agile methodologies would be considered heretic a few years ago. Trends come and go.
Above all you need to use your critical judgement before accepting anything you read. This is true also for agile methodologies (I would even say specially for agile methodologies, since they’re the hype right now, and they may be presented to you as the absolute truth).
Wikipedia has a fairly good article that you can use as a starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development_process
From there, you’ll find references for more concrete information.
I have 10 years of professional software development experience, both as a programmer and as a manager, employed in big software companies, and being part of startups.
After all I have experienced, I can tell you the most sound advice I have heard comes from Joel Spolsky himself:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com
Go through the archives and read them.
Over the years, I’ve come to realize that the software development practices that work for me (and for the teams where I was in), boil down to most of what Joel is saying for all these years.
(Bonus Tip: There’s already someone who has gone through the Joel on Software archives and has posted the highlights.)