The Mythical Man-Month Ch 13 - 15

Reference Information:

Title: The Mythical Man-Month

Author: Frederick P. Brooks

Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Summary:

Chapter 13 - The Whole and the Parts:

The whole refers to the system, or the entire project while the parts refer to the individual tasks or features. This chapter talks about the importance of properly integrating the individual tasks into a robust system and how difficult this job can be. He suggests using a top down approach for effective integration and to avoid bugs during the integration process.

Chapter 14 - Hatching a Catastrophe:

In this chapter the author talks about the importance of setting strong milestones. Once these milestones are set, the team must make sure that they are met within the allocated time frame. Author says that once a schedule has been fixed, it's very important to follow it closely. Also, the pert charts must be kept updated at all times. To get the work done from the employees the managers should try to avoid team conflicts.

Chapter 15 - The Other Face:

This chapter talks about the customer view of the program. Depending on various situations, code documentation needs to be prepared for different types of users. Author also talks about flowcharts and states that they are usually produced after the program is complete. The flow charts to be easily comprehend-able should be up to one page long. Furthermore, self-documenting is important i.e. using intuitive variable names and commenting the code.

Discussion:

I liked all the three chapters assigned for this reading. Chapters were very easy to understand and were quite articulate. Now the author seems to be moving on from "getting the code done within the deadline" to the "making it classy" approach. The ideas he suggests in these chapters helps in designing professional quality software products.