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The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 20th Anniversary Edition
by Frederick P. Brooks
| List Price: | | $29.95 |
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Edition: Paperback
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The classic book on the human elements of software engineering. Software tools and development environments may have changed in the 21 years since the first edition of this book, but the peculiarly nonlinear economies of scale in collaborative work and the nature of individuals and groups has not changed an epsilon. If you write code or depend upon those who do, get this book as soon as possible -- from Amazon.com Books, your library, or anyone else. You (and/or your colleagues) will be forever grateful. Very Highest Recommendation.
From Book News, Inc.
The 20th anniversary edition of this classic collection of essays on software engineering and managing complex projects includes revised material, and new chapters condensing the author's original propositions and his views 20 years later, plus a reprint of his 1986 paper "No Silver Bullet," and his recent comments on that essay. Brooks' central argument is that large programming projects suffer different management problems from small ones due to the division of labor, and that... read more
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Average Customer Review: 
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers. 2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
So much better than "Code Complete" I can't believe it., September 17, 2004
First if you are comparing "Code Complete" a book from MS which has yet to release a product that was complete, it is difficult to stop laughing.
Every new middle manager should read this book, and stop trying to ignore 50 years of experience. Oh yeah, we live in internet time, but we still can't make a project deadline, because human's haven't evolved much in the last 100 years. Yes extreme programming has its place. It's the mini team within the 7 person teams that Brooks outlines.
But its the communication issues within a project that kill bigger teams. Yes some programs and projects don't need this full scale project team. But try to write the flight control software for a modern jet, and you'd better be paying attention to the lessons in this book.
Yet managers still don't learn, go find "Programming Disasters" and see some examples of millions of dollars spent and no working project. People believe that there is some silver bullet instead of trying to work within the framework that they have. No one thinks that gravity doesn't apply to them for very long and neither will they think that communication issues don't apply once they see the disaster that unfolds. Usually though the money has been spent and the company folds/the project dies.
So pay attention! If you want "chief programmers" train them! It's not rocket science. The military trains generals and sargents with regularity, we can train our leaders if we care. To do it on the cheap well, we can see what happens when we try it.
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2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Dated, August 20, 2004
This book is a dated classic. There are much better books than this now; "Code Complete" and "Rapid Development" by Steve McConnell spring to mind. I would borrow it from the library and buy "Code Complete".
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Distilled facts that withstand the test of time, August 3, 2004
I cannot think up any other book that would come close to being as effective as this one when it comes to solid, down to earth advice on the management of software projects.
Direct and to the point in its presentation, and built on actual experience gathered during years of work, the book lays down its insight in an extremely effective and efficient manner, making for both an interesting and an effective read. Quantity wise, the book addresses many issues surrounding the world of software project management, issues that usually take several books for others to explore.
Although the book is old, with references to old technologies that serve best as comic relief nowadays, it is quite amazing to see how true and how valid the insights gathered by the author are today. My own experience and discussions I have had with colleagues from reputable Fortune 100 companies helped me realize how relevant the book still is: Decades after it was written, project managers everywhere still approach software projects with attitudes that would never be accepted elsewhere and are still attempting to cut corners they should not cut. They all end up paying the price, just as the book predicts.
The bottom line is that this book is a true classic: Extremely effective, concise, readable, entertaining - and one that withstands the test of time.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
I would give it a 100 stars if I could!, May 29, 2004
If you have managed some software projects or have worked on some non-trivial software systems, undoubtedly you have faced many difficulties and challenges that you thought were unique to your circumstance. But after reading this book, you will realize that many of the things you experienced, and thought were unique problems, are NOT unique to you but are common systemic problems of developing non-trivial software systems. These problems appear repeatedly and even predictably, in project after project, in company after company, regardless of year, whether it's 1967 or 2007.You will realize that long before maybe you were even born, other people working at places like IBM had already experienced those problems and quandries. And found working solutions to them which are as valid today as they were 30 years ago.
The suggestions in this book will help you think better and better manage yourself, and be more productive and less wasteful with your time and energy. In short, you will do more with less.
Some of Brooks insights and generalizations are:
The Mythical Man-Month:
Assigning more programmers to a project running behind schedule, may make it even more late.
The Second-System Effect:
The second system an engineer designs is the most bloated system she will EVER design.
Conceptual Integrity:
To retain conceptual integrity and thereby user-friendliness, a system must have a single architect (or a small system architecture team), completely separate from the implementation team.
The Manual:
The chief architect should produce detailed written specifications for the system in the form of the manual, which leaves no ambiguities about any part of the system and completely specifies the external spcifications of the system i.e. what the user sees.
Pilot Plant:
When designing a new kind of system, a team should factor in the fact that they will have to throw away the first system that is built since this first system will teach them how to build the system. The system will then be completely redesigned using the newly acquired insights during building of the first system. This second system will be smarter and should be the one delivered to the customer.
Formal Documents:
Every project manager must create a roadmap in the form of formal documents which specifies milestones precisely and things like who is going to do what and when and at what cost.
Communication:
In order to avoid disaster, all the teams working on a project, such as the architecture and implementation teams, should stay in contact with each other in as many ways as possible and not guess or assume anything about the other. Ask whenever there's a doubt. NEVER assume anything.
Code Freeze and System Versioning:
No customer ever fully knows what she wants from the system she wants you to build. As the system begins to come to life, and the customer interacts with it, he understands more and more what he really wants from the system and consequently asks for changes. These changes should of course be accomodated but only upto a certain date, after which the code is frozen. All requests for more changes will have to wait until the NEXT version of the system. If you keep making changes to the system endlessly, it may NEVER get finished.
Specialized Tools:
Every team should have a designated tool maker who makes tools for the entire team, instead of all individuals developing and using their private tools that no one else understands.
No silver bullet:
There is no single strategy, technique or trick that will exponentially raise the productivity of programmers.
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