More by Fred Brooks
Show me your flowcharts and conceal your tables, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your tables, and I won’t usually need your flowcharts; they’ll be obvious.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (1975)
Some people have called the book the "bible of software engineering". I would agree with that in one respect: that is, everybody quotes it, some people read it, and a few people go by it.
The complexity of software is an essential property, not an accidental one. Hence, descriptions of a software entity that abstract away its complexity often abstracts away its essence.
No Silver Bullet (1986)
Even perfect program verification can only establish that a program meets its specification. […] Much of the essence of building a program is in fact the debugging of the specification.
No Silver Bullet (1986)
How does a project get to be a year late? … One day at a time.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (1975)
Brooks's Law: Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (1975)
Study after study shows that the very best designers produce structures that are faster, smaller, simpler, clearer, and produced with less effort. The differences between the great and the average approach an order of magnitude.
No Silver Bullet (1986)
The management question, therefore, is not whether to build a pilot system and throw it away. You will do that. […] Hence plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (1975)
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