This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

Experience tells Frederick P. Brooks that the first system built is always barely usable. So many years after the book was published, that is also my experience: I never worked in a company that didn’t have at least one previous version of their software that was completely thrown away! Continue reading “11. Plan to Throw One Away” →

This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

Why should we have formal documents? Continue reading “10. The Documentary Hypothesis” →

This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

In this chapter, Frederick P. Brooks, tells us about performance requirements. Of course, the context was different, so the examples and terminology need some translation to today’s context… Continue reading “9. Ten Pounds in a Five-Pound Sack” →

This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

This chapter deals with estimations, which still are somewhat of a problem nowadays… Continue reading “8. Calling the shot” →

This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

This seventh chapter is about how a software development department should communicate and how it should be organised. Continue reading “7. Why did the Tower of Babel fail” →

This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

The question this chapter tries to answer is “how shall the manager ensure that everyone hears, understands and implements the Architect’s decisions?” Continue reading “6. Passing the word” →

This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

The most dangerous points of our career are the ones when we are, undeservingly, extra self-confident in our knowledge and experience. At that point, we think we know it all about the problem at hand and how to solve it…

But how do we detect those moments and how can we avoid them? Continue reading “5. The second system effect” →

This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

This chapter is about the impact that easiness of use and project scale, impact on the system design and the teams’ organisation. Continue reading “4. Aristocracy, democracy and system design” →

This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

I guess most of us feel that small experienced teams are far more productive per developer than large teams with dozens or even hundreds of developers…

But how can we build a huge project with just a small team…?! No matter how good the developers would be, it would take forever…

The dilemma is a cruel one. For efficiency and conceptual integrity, one prefers a few good minds doing design and construction. Yet for large systems one wants a way to bring considerable manpower to bear, so that the product can make a timely appearance. How can these two needs be reconciled?

The mythical man-month pg. 31

Continue reading “3. The surgical team” →

This post is part of a series of posts with my personal notes about the chapters in the book “The mythical man-month” by Frederick P. Brooks. I write these posts as I read through the book, and take notes on the concepts I find more relevant. I do, however, advise reading the book to get the full benefit out of it.

In this second chapter, we go through the projects time and effort estimations, their problems and possible solutions. Continue reading “2. The mythical man-month” →