Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition, The: Essays On Software Engineering
Frederick P. Brooks Jr.amazon.com
Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition, The: Essays On Software Engineering
This book is a belated answer to Tom Watson's probing questions as to why programming is hard to manage.
Chapter 5. The Second-System Effect
Chapter 4. Aristocracy, Democracy, and System Design
The second reason for the project workbook is control of the distribution of information. The problem is not to restrict information, but to ensure that relevant information gets to all the people who need it.
In most computer projects there comes a day when it is discovered that the machine and the manual don't agree. When the confrontation follows, the manual usually loses, for it can be changed far more quickly and cheaply than the machine.
Architecture must be carefully distinguished from implementation. As Blaauw has said, "Where architecture tells what happens, implementation tells how it is made to happen."
Fifth, when schedule slippage is recognized, the natural (and traditional) response is to add manpower. Like dousing a fire with gasoline, this makes matters worse, much worse. More fire requires more gasoline, and thus begins a regenerative cycle which ends in disaster.