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Frederick P. Brooks: The Mythical Man-Month (Paperback, 1995, Addison-Wesley Professional)

Classic text on the human side of software engineering, containing essays on the management of …

Review of 'The Mythical Man-Month' on 'Goodreads'

Most of the stuff in Fred Brooks' Mythical Man-Month is stuff I've read in one place or another over the years. However, I'd never read all of it in one place and it had been a while. When I heard the audio of his presentation at OOPSLA 2007, I grabbed a copy and read it through.

The details and examples are definitely showing their age, but the underlying principles, including the source of the title still ring true 35 years after he wrote them the first time. There are some myths of software development that just seem to have imbibed the zombie powder. They just won't die.

I've lost count of the number of project managers who seem to think that they're going to be the first to add people to a late project and speed it up. Re-reading these essays invigorates my desire to challenge that assumption more emphatically when it comes up.