The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition Audiobook By Frederick P. Brooks Jr. cover art

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition

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The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition

By: Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
Narrated by: Michael Rutland
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Few books on software project management have been as influential and timeless as The 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 listeners already familiar with his work and for listeners 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."

©1996 Pearson Education, Inc. (P)2024 Pearson Education, Inc.
Programming & Software Development Software Software Development Programming
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A dated classic that is hard to get through

I really wanted to like this audiobook because this book is considered a classic in Software Engineering, but I found it a real chore to listen to and get through.

I think the book is narrated fairly well but I think the book doesn't translate to an audiobook well or the layout of the book doesn't really work.

There is a large chunk of the book with fairly dated ideas on Software Engineering followed by a section near the end which tells you what's changed in the authors opinion in 1996 which is still dated. you get to hear really old Software Engineering essays followed by slightly newer but still old ideas.

There are some good parts to the book such as No Silver Bullet, but there are others such as the idea of programming surgical teams which really fall flat given modern practices.

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