Saturday, May 27, 2006

Re-reading the Mythical Man Month

I don't remember when I first read the orinal essay, but I think it was before the 20th anniversary edition. It is amazing to think that, not only were Brook's observations as relevant 20 years after he made them as when he first made them, they are perhaps even more relevant now another 10+ years later. While there are plenty of interesting anachronisms dating the original text, there are many many more truisms that have stood the test of time. However, that alone does not make the book as important as I think it truely is today. What is so significant about the Mythical Man Month is that the progam management fallacies that Brooks debunks in his book are still made today, over and over, at all types of companies who do software.