The Mythical Man-Month. Essays on Software Engineering [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The Mythical Man-Month ist einer der Klassiker im Bereich des Software-Programmanagement. Brooks schöpft aus seiner reichhaltigen Erfahrung als Leiter für die Entwicklung von Betriebssystemen für IBMs berühmte 360er Großrechner und er legt sein Wissen in leicht verständlicher Form dar. Die letzte Ausgabe enthält vier neue Kapitel, die Brooks frischeste Erfahrungen umfassen. Jeder, der mit Softwareentwicklung betraut ist oder sich dafür interessiert, sollte dieses Buch lesen.

Der Klassiker zur Problematik des menschlichen Faktors im Software-Engineering. Software-Tools und Entwicklungsumgebungen mögen sich in den 21 Jahren seit dem ersten Erscheinen des Buches verändert haben, aber die seltsamen, nicht linear verlaufenden Größenvorteile in der Zusammenarbeit und in der Natur des Einzelnen oder der Natur von Gruppen haben sich in keinster Weise geändert. Wenn Sie selbst im Software-Engineering tätig sind oder abhängig sind von anderen in diesem Bereich Tätigen, dann sollten Sie sich so schnell wie möglich dieses Buch besorgen -- von Amazon.de, Ihrer Bibliothek oder von jemand anderem. Sie (und/oder Ihre Kollegen) werden es nicht bereuen. Das Buch ist äußerst zu empfehlen.

Kein Buch über Software-Projektmanagement war so bedeutend und so zeitlos wie The Mythical Man-Month. Heute, 20 Jahre nach dem ersten Erscheinen des Buches, rollt Frederick P. Brooks Jr. Seine ursprünglichen Ideen wieder auf, stellt neue Überlegungen an und entwickelt neue Ratschläge sowohl für Leser, die seine Bücher bereits kennen als auch für diejenigen, die zum ersten Mal ein Buch von ihm lesen.

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.

Few books on software project management have been as influential and timeless asThe Mythical Man-Month. With a blend of software engineering facts and thought-provoking opinions, Fred Brooks offers insight for anyone managing complex projects. These essays draw from his experience as project manager for the IBM System/360 computer family and then for OS/360, its massive software system. Now, 20 years after the initial publication of his book, Brooks has revisited his original ideas and added new thoughts and advice, both for readers already familiar with his work and for readers discovering it for the first time. The added chapters contain (1) a crisp condensation of all the propositions asserted in the original book, including Brooks' central argument in The Mythical Man-Month: that large programming projects suffer management problems different from small ones due to the division of labor; that the conceptual integrity of the product is therefore critical; and that it is difficult but possible to achieve this unity; (2) Brooks' view of these propositions a generation later; (3) a reprint of his classic 1986 paper "No Silver Bullet"; and (4) today's thoughts on the 1986 assertion, "There will be no silver bullet within ten years."

Since the first publication of The Mythical Man-Month in 1975, no software engineer's bookshelf has been complete without it. Many software engineers and computer scientists have claimed to be "on their second or third copy" of the book. Now, Addison-Wesley is proud to present the 20th anniversary edition-and first revised edition ever-of Fred Brooks's now legendary collection of essays on the management of computer programming projects. The 20th Anniversary edition is an updated, enhanced re-release of the Brooks classic. Included are all of the existing essays that were originally presented, with the addition of three new essays assessing the current status of software project management. Brooks's well-known 1986 article, No Silver Bullet, is also included. This 20th Anniversary edition is a major event in computer publishing.

Frederick P. Brooks ist der Träger des A.M. Turing Award der ACM im Jahre 1999 - der Auszeichnung mit dem höchsten Prestige, die es im Computerbereich gibt. Er erhielt diesen Preis insbesondere für seine "bahnbrechenden Beiträge zur Architektur von Computern, Betriebssysteme und auf dem Gebiet des Software Engineering".

To my surprise and delight, The Mythical Man-Month continues to be popular after twenty years. Over 250,000 copies are in print. People often ask which of the opinions and recommendations set forth in 1975 I still hold, and which have changed, and how. Whereas I have from time to time addressed that question in lectures, I have long wanted to essay it in writing.

Peter Gordon, now a Publishing Partner at Addison-Wesley, has been working with me patiently and helpfully since 1980. He proposed that we prepare an Anniversary Edition. We decided not to revise the original, but to reprint it untouched (except for trivial corrections) and to augment it with more current thoughts.

Chapter 16 reprints "No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering," a 1986 IFIPS paper that grew out of my experience chairing a Defense Science Board study on military software. My co-authors of that study, and our executive secretary, Robert L. Patrick, were invaluable in bringing me back into touch with real-world large software projects. The paper was reprinted in 1987 in the IEEE Computer magazine, which gave it wide circulation.

"No Silver Bullet" proved provocative. It predicted that a decade would not see any programming technique which would by itself bring an order-of-magnitude improvement in software productivity. The decade has a year to run; my prediction seems safe. "NSB" has stimulated more and more spirited discussion in the literature than has The Mythical Man-Month. Chapter 17, therefore, comments on some of the published critique and updates the opinions set forth in 1986.

In preparing my retrospective and update of The Mythical Man-Month, I was struck by how few of the propositions asserted in it have been critiqued, proven, or disproven by ongoing software engineering research and experience. It proved useful to me now to catalog those propositions in raw form, stripped of supporting arguments and data. In hopes that these bald statements will invite arguments and facts to prove, disprove, update, or refine those propositions, I have included this outline as Chapter 18.

Chapter 19 is the updating essay itself. The reader should be warned that the new opinions are not nearly so well informed by experience in the trenches as the original book was. I have been at work in a university, not industry, and on small-scale projects, not large ones. Since 1986, I have only taught software engineering, not done research in it at all. My research has rather been on virtual reality and its applications.

In preparing this retrospective, I have sought the current views of friends who are indeed at work in software engineering. For a wonderful willingness to share views, to comment thoughtfully on drafts, and to re-educate me, I am indebted to Barry Boehm, Ken Brooks, Dick Case, James Coggins, Tom DeMarco, Jim McCarthy, David Parnas, Earl Wheeler, and Edward Yourdon. Fay Ward has superbly handled the technical production of the new chapters.

I thank Gordon Bell, Bruce Buchanan, Rick Hayes-Roth, my colleagues on the Defense Science Board Task Force on Military Software, and, most especially, David Parnas for their insights and stimulating ideas for, and Rebekah Bierly for technical production of, the paper printed here as Chapter 16. Analyzing the software problem into the categories of essence and accident was inspired by Nancy Greenwood Brooks, who used such analysis in a paper on Suzuki violin pedagogy.

Addison-Wesley's house custom did not permit me to acknowledge in the 1975 Preface the key roles played by their staff. Two persons' contributions should be especially cited: Norman Stanton, then Executive Editor, and Herbert Boes, then Art Director. Boes developed the elegant style, which one reviewer especially cited: "wide margins, and imaginative use of typeface and layout." More important, he also made the crucial recommendation that every chapter have an opening picture. (I had only the Tar Pit and Rheims Cathedral at the time.) Finding the pictures occasioned an extra year's work for me, but I am eternally grateful for the counsel.

Deo soli gloria or Soli Deo Gloria -- To God alone be the glory.

Chapel Hill, N.C., F.


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