Dated Oct 1, 1974;
last modified on Sat, 19 Jul 2025
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering.
Brooks, Jr., Frederick P.
Oct 1, 1974.
ISBN: 0201006502 .
One of the striking differences is how Software Engineering (SWE) has evolved
over time. Brook’s use of male-dominated language wasn’t an eyelid-batter during
his time, but now, SWE tries to be more inclusive in its language. I’ve even
seen content that uses “she” in hypothetical expositions.
I’ve also encountered practices in the workplace that may have been influenced
by Mythical Man-Month. Maybe this is due to there being experienced devs who
read this book (and its derivations) during their formative years.
The fiercer the struggle, the more entangling the tar, and no beast is so strong or so skillful but that he ultimately sinks.
The Programming Systems Product How do 2 programmers in a remodeled garage build an important program that surpasses the best efforts of large teams?
A Program Garage duos typically build a program: complete in itself, ready to be run by the author on the system on which it was developed....
More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined.
Why is this cause of disaster so common? Our estimation techniques assume that all will go well, i.e. each task will take only as long as it “ought” to take. Our estimating techniques fallaciously confuse effort with progress, hiding the assumption that men and months are interchangeable. Because we are uncertain of our estimates, software managers often lack the courteous stubbornness - if you’re made to wait, it is to serve you better, and to please you....
The Dilemma There are wide productivity variations between good programmers and poor ones. Sackman et. al. found 10:1 ratios. The data showed no correlation between experience and performance.
The idea of a 10x developer is mostly ridiculed in my online circles. That said, some jobs have X years of experience as a requirement. How can we resolve these contradictions?
The major part of the cost of large teams is communication, and system debugging to correct the ill effects of miscommunication....