Streamline Training & Documentation: Fred Brooks on "The Mythical Man-Month"

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Fred Brooks on "The Mythical Man-Month"

I was introduced to Fred Brooks' 1975 book, The Mythical Man-Month, by a man at IBM who swore by its experience-based advice on managing development of new products — most particularly, development of software. It is from this book that we have Brooks' Law:

Adding people to a software project that's late makes it later.

Here are some further nuggets of Brooksian wisdom, taken from an interview in the December 12, 2005 issue of Fortune, published to mark the 30th anniversary of The Mythical Man-Month:

Brooks' Law applies broadly. Brooks told Fortune, "Surprisingly enough, a partner in a big law firm said, 'Oh, this describes our practice.' I've had physicians say the same. It's really about people and people in teams: the communication problems, the scheduling problems, the estimating problems."

"The best single advice [for managers] is a motto I read on the ceiling of a German drinking fraternity in Heidelberg — this cave had been there, I guess, since the 16th century. It said, Numquam incertus; semper apertus: 'Never uncertain, always open.' Sometimes the first part is put as saying, 'You can't steer a ship that's not underway.' At any given time, you ought to have pretty clear goals, and know where you're going, and be going there. On the other hand, you always should be open to saying, 'Is that what we really ought to be doing? Here's another idea.' But sitting still in the water waiting to decide which way to go is the wrong thing to do."

À propos of the second quote, one of the epigrams in The Mythical Man-Month reminds readers of a similar sentiment from another well-tempered executive — Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."

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Labels: Collaboration, Productivity

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