The Mythical Man Month

Managing Software Development Projects

In today’s world, more and more managers find themselves having to manage an impromptu software project. It usually starts by a need identified by a “hobbyist” colleague, who realizes that they can solve a problem by writing a simple software. Before he knows it, the manager is sucked into the world of managing software development the hard way. In professional IT shops, it is hard enough for managers to keep software projects on track. Keeping in line the requirements, the budget, and the time-line is no small feat. If on top of that, you have to add that you’re managing hobbyist software developers with no formal training or experience, that can spell disaster. While The Mythical Man-Month might not solve all your problems, it certainly will give you a new perspective making your new predicament easier to deal with. For example, when you find that your developers find themselves in a cycle of adding yet another feature and the finished product release keeps being pushed out – this is called scope creep – you will be able to rely on the guidance in The Mythical Man-Month.

This book is a required reading in reputable graduate level computer science curriculae. Here is the Amazon review of this book:

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)


“The classic book on the human elements of software engineering. Software tools and development environments may have changed in the 21 years since the first edition of this book, but the peculiarly nonlinear economies of scale in collaborative work and the nature of individuals and groups has not changed an epsilon. If you write code or depend upon those who do, get this book as soon as possible — from Amazon.com Books, your library, or anyone else. You (and/or your colleagues) will be forever grateful. Very Highest Recommendation.”