If you are a involved in software management, buy this book. If you are a software developer, buy this book for your boss.
Much of what DeMarco says goes against "traditional" management practice, but that is the point of the book. Software development - or the broader term knowledge work - does not present a traditional management problem. Trying to use such an approach robs organizations of their ability to change in response to the situation at hand as well as burning out their developers.
Many organizations treat software developers as interchangeable cogs in the machine that cranks out software. The author explains that the people who write software are not such fungible resources. Matrix management is also exposed as not being a great idea for software developers.
The author also points out how the overly busy organization is often driven by fear and control. Much of this is a result of the dreaded "agressive schedule" and the pressure that comes with trying to meet it. DeMarco also explains why Taylor's model that helped manufacturing really doesn't apply to software development. Scientific management used for software development is the square peg shoved in a round hole in an attempt to give management a sense of being in control.
Then, DeMarco goes to explain what can happen in organizations that have slack. He focuses on the middle management layer as the place where leadership and vision of change for improvement can happen. Sadly, though, this is exactly what many organizations have cut out in the layoffs that have happened over the past few years. The author goes on to relate how trust and safety are necessary for change to happen, i.e. failure cannot always be treated as a bad thing. People learn from mistakes. It takes slack to allow for mistakes and learning to take place.
The closing section on risk and risk management were a good conclusion to the book. Building on the notion of the "agressive schedule", he goes on to explain how each risk is assumed to have a 0% chance of happening in these situations. The tradeoffs and payoffs of risk mitigation are also shown. With risk mitigation, the earliest possible completion date moves out by some amount, but the latest possible completion date moves in greatly.
- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Crown Business; Reprint edition (April 9 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0767907698
- ISBN-13: 978-0767907699
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.3 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 23 customer reviews
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#214,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #80 in Operations Research (Books)
- #81 in Chinese Biographies
- #80 in Japanese Biographies
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