The Mythical Man-Month
1974
- computer programming management
- addresses, essays, lectures
- software engineering
- electronic digital computers
- programming
- computer programming
- multics
- technologie logiciel
- gestion projet
- programmation (informatique)
The story
Classic text on the human side of software engineering, containing essays on the management of software teams, projections about how computer languages and tools will evolve, and philosophical speculation. Unlike most other books about computing, Brooks' work has been remarkably enduring, remaining in print for at least four decades. The book is most famous for its statement of Brooks' Law: "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later".
What it’s like
Dry, unhurried and quietly wry, this is a book of short essays written in plain, confident prose, the voice of a veteran engineer leaning back from a long project to talk candidly about what went wrong. Its pages are white and sparse, broken into brief chapters with diagrams, tables of schedules and the occasional crisp aphorism set apart, so it reads more like a well-worn notebook than a textbook. The atmosphere is that of a late-century machine room recalled with hindsight: deadlines, committees, meetings that drag, and teams of people trying to hold a huge thing together. Its emotional register is measured and gently rueful, more sympathetic than scolding, with a steady undercurrent of dry humor and affection for the craft. There is no violence, no sensational material, and nothing to make the reader tense. It suits a slow weekday morning with coffee, a long train ride, or an evening spent reading in short sittings and pausing to think. It is for people who enjoy thoughtful, unpretentious nonfiction about work, teams and how people behave under pressure, whether or not they write code.
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