The Mythical Man-Month Ch 4 - 6

Reference Information:

Title: The Mythical Man-Month

Author: Frederick P. Brooks

Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Summary:

Chapter 4 - Aristocracy , Democracy and System Design:

In this chapter, the author emphasizes on the idea of conceptual integrity. The author states that a uniform and consistent set of design ideas should be followed instead of having multiple uncoordinated ideas. Author mentions that democracy doesn't really work when it comes to the design phase since different people have various different ideas and all of them can't be incorporated. He also mentions that some stages can be worked on in parallel.

Chapter 5 - The Second System Effect:

In this chapter, the author says that designers tend to add all the new ideas that pop in their minds while working on the first phase into the second phase. This introduces many new changes in the design and many of them might not be consistent with the design that was initially thought of, which can eventually lead to a bad design. It's thus important to incorporate only the smart and creative ideas in the second phase and drop the unnecessary ideas.

Chapter 6 - Passing the Word:

In this chapter, the author stresses on the importance of communication and how everyone needs to be kept informed about the progress of the project. To do this, there are written specifications, formal definitions, direct incorporation, and conferences that require all high-level personnel to meet and discuss problems and solutions. A telephone log is suggested for logging questions and answers, and product testing is recommended for checking the programs against specifications. Face-to-face meetings with the team are very important. Finally, the author again emphasizes in thorough testing of the product.

Discussion:

I think reading this book is a little repetitive after reading the extreme programming book. Most concepts overlap. However, This author has slightly differing views from the authors of the book on extreme programming on certain issues. Overall, the ideas presented make complete sense, but achieving everything is definitely not possible, after all, to err is human.