Description

In this classic book, the authors demonstrate the major human - not technical - issues of software development and give challenging, but successful answers to the questions of software managers and developers. For this edition, the authors have added six new chapters and updated the text throughout, bringing it in line with today’s development environments and challenges. The book now discusses pathologies of leadership that hadn’t previously been judged to be pathological; an evolving culture of meetings; hybrid teams made up of people from seemingly incompatible generations; and a growing awareness that some of our most common tools are more like anchors than propellers. Anyone who needs to manage a software project or software organisation will find invaluable advice throughout the book.

Features

• The legendary “anti-Dilbert” book on managing software projects by focusing on people - now fully updated for today’s projects and methodologies
• Combines humor and wisdom to deliver timeless, practical advice every software manager and developer can use
• Updated and reorganised, with seven brand-new chapters
• Now addresses leadership, generational differences, distributed and diverse teams, managing risk, holding effective meetings, and using email the right way

New to this Edition

Updated throughout, and contains seven new chapters on the following topics:

• Leadership
• Generational Differences
• Distributed Teams
• Diverse Teams
• Risk Management
• Meetings
• Email

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: Somewhere Today, a Project Is Failing
• Chapter 2: Make a Cheeseburger, Sell a Cheeseburger
• Chapter 3: Vienna Waits for You
• Chapter 4: Quality—If Time Permits
• Chapter 5: Parkinson’s Law Revisited
• Chapter 6: Laetrile
• Chapter 7: The Furniture Police
• Chapter 8: “You Never Get Anything Done around Here between 9 and 5.”
• Chapter 9: Saving Money on Space
• Chapter 10: Brain Time versus Body Time
• Chapter 11: The Telephone
• Chapter 12: Bring Back the Door
• Chapter 13: Taking Umbrella Steps
• Chapter 14: The Hornblower Factor
• Chapter 15: Let’s Talk about Leadership
• Chapter 16: Hiring a Juggler
• Chapter 17: Playing Well with Others
• Chapter 18: Childhood’s End
• Chapter 19: Happy to Be Here
• Chapter 20: Human Capital
• Chapter 21: The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts
• Chapter 22: The Black Team
• Chapter 23: Teamicide
• Chapter 24: Teamicide Revisited
• Chapter 25: Competition
• Chapter 26: A Spaghetti Dinner
• Chapter 27: Open Kimono
• Chapter 28: Chemistry for Team Formation
• Chapter 29: The Self-Healing System
• Chapter 30: Dancing with Risk
• Chapter 31: Meetings, Monologues, and Conversations
• Chapter 32: The Ultimate Management Sin Is . . .
• Chapter 33: E(vil) Mail
• Chapter 34: Making Change Possible
• Chapter 35: Organizational Learning
• Chapter 36: The Making of Community
• Chapter 37: Chaos and Order
• Chapter 38: Free Electrons
• Chapter 39: Holgar Dansk

Author

Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister are principals of The Atlantic Systems Guild (www.systemsguild.com), a consulting firm specializing in the complex processes of system building, with particular emphasis on the human dimension. Together, they have lectured, written, and consulted internationally since 1979 on management, estimating, productivity, and corporate culture.

Tom DeMarco is the author or coauthor of nine books on subjects ranging from development methods to organizational function and dysfunction, as well as two novels and a book of short stories. His consulting practice focuses primarily on expert witness work, balanced against the occasional project and team consulting assignment. Currently enjoying his third year teaching ethics at the University of Maine, he lives in nearby Camden.

Timothy Lister divides his time among consulting, teaching, and writing. Based in Manhattan, Tim is coauthor, with Tom, of Waltzing With Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects (Dorset House Publishing Co., Inc., 2003), and of Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior (Dorset House Publishing Co., Inc., 2008), written with four other principals of The Atlantic Systems Guild. He is a member of the IEEE, the ACM, and the Cutter IT Trends Council, and is a Cutter Fellow.