Nano-Blog : April 13, 2025

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Nano-Blog for the week of April 13, 2025.

§ April 19, 2025

• Two Books About Managing Software Projects

  We are lucky to live in a world where there are many very good books about writing programs. But what about managing software projects? Two books that spring to mind include Fred Brooks' The Mythical Man-Month and DeMarco & Lister's Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams.

  The first, Mythical Man-Month, introduces several observations Brooks made while managing the development of OS/360 at IBM. It is one of the earlier texts where counter-intuitive aspects of software development are documented. Worth a read.

  The second, Peopleware, includes the quote "The major problmes of our work are no so much technological as sociological in nature," which will give you a sense for how the authors approach technical team management.

  A bonus book, Ed Yourdon's Death March covers what happens when software projects go bad. If you ignore the advice from Mythical Man-Month and Peopleware, you may have to seek advice in Death March.

  #books #management #software-eng

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