Mythical Man Month

I don’t know about you, but I feel very uneasy, when I don’t have much to do. I’m a self-confessed workaholic and feel guilty when I waste time. I am currently “on the bench”, for the last couple of days at the cube farm, that I work for. The project that I was working on, completed last month, and while my company sorts out another project for me, I’m supposed to sit around nibbling my finger nails.

So, I picked up this book, which I had bought last year and was planning to read, but never got around to actually reading it. So, with time in my hands, I started off. A little background on the book would set up the context though. It’s called the “The Mythical Man Month” by Frederick P Brooks Jr.

Mr. Brooks has delineated his own experiences as a project manager for the IBM system/360 and OS/360(it’s operating system). The anecdotes included and the aptly deduced theories on the art of software development make an interesting read.

This book has so many pearls of wisdom, that I’d recommend it to each and every programmer (especially project managers). The book talks about the common pitfalls of software development and the evolving nature of computer science. Brooks wrote this book in 1982 and some of the ideas are somewhat outdated, but still, most of the authors practical insight on the dilemma of deadline vs quality of end product is worth noting.

Read it if you want to comprehend the black art of software engineering.