Abstract: Large programming projects suffer management problems different in kind from small ones, due to the division of labor. The essays in this book explore the critical need for conceptual integrity, and the methods for achieving it. Revised Edition includes four additional chapters.
Keywords: book review, software, management, software project management, engineering, large-scale project management.
book cover
Title: The Mythical Man Month: Essays on Software Engineering
Author: Frederick P. Brooks.Jr
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Date Published: April 1995
ISBN: 0201835959
LOCN: QA76.758.B75 1995
Dewey: 005.1/068 20
Pages: 322
Bibliography: 77 (first edition)
Figures: 22 (first edition) 		Click below to buy the book
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REVIEW by Orville R. Weyrich, Jr.

I met this book shortly after its first publication, while I was a graduate student in chemistry who had just recently mastered the art of programming a Texas Instruments TI-59 calculator. I realized the limitations of the hand-held calculator when I managed to program some chemical analyses which required days of dedicated calculator-time to complete. At that point, I asked for an IBM-360 mainframe account and taught myself programming. Several thousand lines of Fortran-G later, I was ready for bigger and better things, and found The Mythical Man Month in the university bookstore.

Perhaps it is too melodramatic to say that The Mythical Man Month changed my life, so suffice it to say that after reading the book, I went on to get a job programming a PDP-11 for Knoxville Utility Board. After I got my degree in chemistry, I changed my career to software engineering and never looked back. Now almost twenty years later, after three years as Assistant Professor of Computer Science specializing in software engineering and a decade in private industry, this book still has a special place in my heart.

With the melodrama now dispatched, let me say that I wholeheartedly recommend this book for any manager of a software engineering project, and especially for anyone involved in a Year-2000 project.

A few more comments follow, arranged by chapter.

Chapter 1: The Tar Pit

Programming in-the-large seems to be like the tar pits that entrapped the prehistoric creatures such as the giant sloth, whose bones today grace the science library at the University of Georgia. Brooks writes:

Large-system programming has over the past decade been such a tar-pit, and many great and powerful beasts [including the IBM 360 project team] have thrashed violently in it. Most have emerged with running systems -- few have met goals, schedules, and budgets .... No one thing seems to cause the difficulty -- any particular paw can be pulled away. But the accumulation of simultaneous and interacting factors brings slower and slower motion.

Chapter 2: The Mythical Man-Month

Develops the justification for "Brooks's Law"

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later

Chapter 3: The Surgical Team

Following the lead of Harlan Mills, Brooks constructs an analogy between the roles necessary for a successful software engineering project, and the roles necessary for a surgical team. For many years, I have related best to the roles of "toolsmith" and "tester."

Chapter 4: Aristocracy, Democracy, and System Design

In 1972 I was privileged to tour France as part of a joint expedition of the French and Religion departments of my college. Although I was there as a student of French, visits to many a Cathedral were on the itinerary due to the influence of the religion department. Brooks manages to make my experience relevant to software engineering:

Most European cathedrals show differences in plan or architectural style between parts built in different generations by different builders. The later builders were tempted to "improve" upon the designs of the earlier ones, to reflect the changes in fashion and differences in individual taste ... and the result proclaims the pridefulness of the builders as much as the glory of God.

Brooks goes on to relate this observation to the need for conceptual integrity in the design of a software system, and makes observations on how this can be achieved.

Chapter 5: The Second System Effect

Beware the software engineer who has just completed his first successful system -- his next project runs the risk of dying of "featuritis".

Chapter 6: Passing the Word

Say what you mean and mean what you say -- on the necessity of making the documentation match the implementation.

Chapter 7: Why Did the Tower of Babel Fail?

Using additional analogies, Brooks points out that "The job least well done by project managers is to utilize the technical genius who is not strong on management talent." He then proceeds to illustrate his point with an example of how to do it right, taken from the fictional account of Heinlein's The Man Who Sold the Moon.

Chapter 8: Calling the Shot

Discusses program metrics and project estimation.

Chapter 9: Ten Pounds in a Five-Pound Sack

On allocating scarce machine resources, and the importance of choosing a good problem representation.

Chapter 10: The Documentary Hypothesis

"Amid a wash of paper, a small number of documents become the critical pivots around which every project's management revolves. These are the manager's chief personal tools."

Chapter 11: Plan to Throw One Away

You will anyway. This chapter is aptly introduced by a photo of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940.

Chapter 12: Sharp Tools

Although a true craftsman can fashion wonders using only humble tools, their best work is done with the best possible tools.

Chapter 13: The Whole and the Parts

On designing bugs out of the system, and on removing the inevitable bugs that persist.

Chapter 14: Hatching a Catastrophe

On project scheduling and slips.

Chapter 15: The Other Face

An argument for self-documenting code.

Chapter 16: No Silver Bullet

This chapter, which was first published in IEEE Computer, [April, 1987] after the first edition of The Mythical Man Month, is included in the revised edition. It argues that CASE tools are useful adjuncts to software engineering, but are not a panacea.

Epilogue

I will give Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. the last word:

The tar pit of software engineering will continue to be sticky for a long time to come. Once can expect the human race to continue attempting systems just within or just beyond our reach; and software systems are perhaps the most intricate and complex of man's handiworks. The management of this complex craft will demand our best use of new languages and systems, our best adaptation of proven engineering management methods, liberal doses of common sense, and a God-given humility to recognize our fallibility and limitations.

CONTENTS

The contents of the first edition follow. The latest edition is not yet in hand.

Chapter 1: The Tar Pit

Chapter 2: The Mythical Man-Month

Chapter 3: The Surgical Team

Chapter 4: Aristocracy, Democracy, and System Design

Chapter 5: The Second System Effect

Chapter 6: Passing the Word

Chapter 7: Why Did the Tower of Babel Fail?

Chapter 8: Calling the Shot

Chapter 9: Ten Pounds in a Five-Pound Sack

Chapter 10: The Documentary Hypothesis

Chapter 11: Plan to Throw One Away

Chapter 12: Sharp Tools

Chapter 13: The Whole and the Parts

Chapter 14: Hatching a Catastrophe

Chapter 15: The Other Face

Chapter 16: No Silver Bullet [Second Edition]

Epilogue

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DATA 

Author:        Brooks, Frederick P. (Frederick Phillips)
Title:         The mythical man-month : essays on software
                  engineering / Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
Edition:       Anniversary ed.
Published:     Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1995.
Description:   xiii, 322 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
LC Call No.:   QA76.758.B75 1995
Dewey No.:     005.1/068 20
ISBN:          0201835959
Notes:         Anniversary ed. has four new chapters.
               Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-308)
                  and index.
Subjects:      Software engineering.
Control No.:   94036653

 

 
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