Rating: 
Summary: Good Software Engineering Book
Review: This is a book on software engineering, which has been considered a classic in the software industry. Certainty, this book is littered with good software engineering practices, which are lacking in software projects today(at least the ones I have been through). If you have been managing projects, please get one and read it! The software development process being mentioned in the book is IMHO suitable for big companies with over 100 staff. If you are managing a small team, please get the book "Extreme Programming Installed". Implementing this for small teams simply increases the overhead. Development process, IMHO is not a one-size-fit-all thing. One thing to note is that the author's experiences are in IBM System and OS/360, which might be unfamiliar to some of you(me too!). Thus, it takes time to digest. :) Good to have but not a must have.
Rating: 
Summary: Required Reading
Review: If you've ever wondered why large software projects often turn out to be such nightmares, read this book to learn why it's not just a figment of your imagination. You are not alone. Furthermore, this book should be required reading for any CEO who has to oversee ITD folks and whose business depends on the success of technology improvements. When you have a brain-trust working for you that constantly tells you how new tools and technologies will save the day, read the chapters 'No Silver Bullet' and 'No Silver Bullet Revisited' and decide for yourself. My nit to pick would be that Brooks embraces packaged software products without differentiating between products that support your business (accounting or payroll software) versus products that are your business. Should Ebay have bought a vanilla auction package? I think not. This isn't necessarily an easy read (that is, it's not Scott Adam's 'The Dilbert Principle' or Eliyahu Goldratt's 'The Goal') but as another reviewer suggested, a casual pace with time for reflection is suggested. It's well worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: A true classic of software project management!
Review: There have been many, many books on software project management lately, but this one still is one of the best. Perhaps the context of older simpler technology helps illustrate the principles more clearly. While some new technologies have an impact on projects, particularly the encapsulation aspect of object-oriented design that allows for real code-reuse, the fundamentals don't change. Further, Brooks shows us why there can never be a "Silver Bullet" that will revolutionize the art. He covers in great detail critical elements such as team structure, development process, conceptual integrity, and scheduling issues (including the myth of the man-month, for which the book is named). Further, since he draws on experience from classic projects such as IBM's OS/360, the book has interesting history as well. My only issue is that with recent increases in power of PCs and languages, many "projects" are now of such scope that they need only involve a single developer, in which case a different paradigm is needed.
Rating:
Summary: A timeless classic "must read"
Review: There are few must reads in this industry. This is one. First published in 1975, this work is as applicable to software engineering today as it was then. Why? Because building things, including software, has always been as much about people as it has been about materials or technology--and people don't change much in only 25 years.
In the preface to the First Edition, Brooks states "This book is a belated answer to Tom Watson's probing question as to why programming is hard to manage." This short book (at just over 300 pages) does a masterful job answering that question.
It is here we first hear of Brooks's Law: "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." Brooks doesn't just drop that on the reader without explanation. Instead, he walks through the reasoning, discusses how communication in a group changes as the group changes or grows, and how additions to the group need time to climb the learning curve.
Those new to the industry or who are reading the book for the first time might be put off by the examples and technology discussed. Indeed, even in the newly released edition, the original text from 1975 is still present, essentially untouched. So, talk of OS/360 and 7090s, which permeates the text, is perhaps laughable to those not looking deeper. When talking about trade-offs, for example, Brooks offers "... OS/360 devotes 26 bytes of the permanently resident date-turnover routine to the proper handling of December 31 on leap years (when it is day 366). That might have been left to the operator." This is 26 bytes he's talking about!
Brooks provides a light, almost conversational tone to the prose. This isn't to say the observations and analysis were not very well researched. Comparing productivity number with those of Software Productivity Research (SPR), you'll find Brooks came up with the same measurements for productivity as Jones--only 20 years earlier!
Other wisdom is also buried in this work. Brooks declares "The question, therefore, is not whether to build a pilot system and throw it away. You will do that. The question is whether to plan in advance to build a throwaway, or to promise to deliver the throwaway to customers." The state of products I buy today tells me not enough people have taken Brooks's observations to heart!
The latest version of the text includes his work "No Silver Bullet." Brooks, who had brought us so much before, had one last "parting shot."
As I started this review I will also end it: this book is a classic. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Hard truths about managing software projects
Review: Most of what you'll read in this book will not come as a surprise, you've
heard it before; well, this is the source. These are observation like:
Programmers who really think they found the last bug mess up your planning
(since they didn't), the last 10% of a software project may take more resources
to complete than all used so far and adding resources to a project will only
make it finish even later.
This very book has left a tremendous impression on the industry ever since
it was first printed (1971?) although most mistakes are still made.
Virtually all examples are outdated like "--the date should be changed manually for a leap year, this saves some 50 bytes in main memory--" but
anyone can substitute relevant examples.
The author's main argument is that no "silver bullet" will be invented that
can decrease the time to perform a complex software project significantly.
In this 1995 edition the author admits (in a new chapter) that some of his
conclusions are incorrect but he stays with that argument: the silver bullet
was not invented and will not soon (if ever) be invented.
Rating:
Summary: I would give it a 100 stars if I could!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A classic book on Software engineering
Review: This is a timeless classic. A must read for everyone involved in software developement projects.
Rating:
Summary: A concise classic
Review: Perhaps the first mass market book on software engineering, this book is a classic. It has defined the agenda for the software engineering field, as well as guide the organizational design for many software and IT organizations. Some key concepts from the book...
- It is not good project management to divide effort by time to come up with staffing. Adding people adds commuications complexity, so double staff size quadruples the amount of communications links.
- To insure conceptual integrity, the software project needs the design to be handled by a very small group of people.
- The optimal model for a software development team is a hospital surgical unit.
- There is no silver bullet for improved quality, just a lot of best practices. Mr. Brooks brings a wealth of experience to bear on this. As the head of some of IBM's largest operating system development projects, he's been in the guts of some of the hardest challenges the industry has to offer. He writes in a non-technical style that cuts to the heart of these difficult topics. In the latest edition, Mr. Brooks takes a hard look at what he got right and wrong over the years. This rare self-critical analysis makes it a valuable re-read for those that enjoyed it the first time.
Rating:
Summary: timeless classic
Review: I just re-read Mythical Man-Month for the umpteenth time. This book is like a good bottle of scotch, it gets better each time. Your developers should read this book if they are serious coders.
Rating:
Summary: Software engineering classic for all software professionals
Review: I read this book after the instructor of a computer course I took in the mid-1990s highly recommended it to students. There are so many reviews listed here for this book that I am not sure I can add anything of particular note. What I can say is that reading, understanding, and applying principles outlined in this book will help programmers begin their evolution to software engineers. I recommend this book to everyone involved in the software development process, including project managers and all software project stakeholders. Yes, I agree with some reviewers that parts of the book are a bit outdated. However, this is a highly readable book which has much timeless advice. Learn to read between the lines. If the text refers to a procedural language, and your only exposure has been to object-oriented languages, for instance, think about how you can apply the principles to Java or C++ or Smalltalk. Readers just need to understand that a book does not need to be rewritten every time the language-of-the-month changes. This book is not eternal truth. Principles do change over time. Read this as one of your primers to software engineering, and then follow up your reading with other texts. This book is quoted so often in other books and technical journals that it deserves an initial reading.
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