Deadline volume demarco summary. deadline. A novel about project management. Collection of metric data
Tom DeMarco is a contemporary writer, famous American computer technology engineer, winner of various awards for achievements in development. software. He has extensive experience in project management, conflict resolution, finding the right answers to the tasks. He outlined all his “baggage” of knowledge in the book “Deadline. A novel about project management. The basic rules in the world of the IT industry are explained in simple language, easy-to-understand examples are shuffled with a bit of humor, and all this is based on an unpretentious plot. This novel is positioned as a work of art. This is the "trick" of the book - all boring moralizing is written in a fun and accessible form, confirmed by the author's own experience and the secrets of his colleagues. Tom DeMarco generously shares the basic principles of project management and beyond. it desk book for all leaders and subordinates.
All these clues are revealed to us by the main character of the book - IT manager Webster Tompkins. Under mysterious circumstances, he ends up in the small communist country of Morovia, where he has to manage people, projects, and face various problems. The main task is to raise the economy of a decadent state. Will he cope with such a difficult task? The answer is hidden in the vastness of the work.
Read the book "Deadline. A novel about project management” is all the more interesting because it is presented in a very accessible form. And at the end of each given example, summarizing conclusions are written that help the manager in solving the tasks. In general, the author brought to life an interesting idea: to present such a serious topic as project management to us in the form of a fascinating work of art.
Tom DeMarco wrote a book not only for managerial level. The author is sure that we are all leaders of our lives, so his good advice will help everyone to understand the difficult vicissitudes of life. Many conclusions can be used in any area: conflict resolution, teamwork, achievement of goals.
Book «Deadline. A novel about project management” summarizes the long-term practice of research work. You can read it and find answers to different situations and guidance on how to solve them. This is a priceless work of art in the IT industry. And her style of writing helps to better understand the advice given.
Tom DeMarco briefly, concisely and most clearly conveys to the reader all the problems of project management, people management and brings all the invaluable knowledge to the reader's judgment. Therefore, everyone should read this book.
On our literary website, you can download the book by Tom DeMarco “Deadline. A novel about project management" for free in formats suitable for different devices - epub, fb2, txt, rtf. Do you like to read books and always follow the release of new products? We have big choice books of various genres: classics, modern science fiction, literature on psychology and children's editions. In addition, we offer interesting and informative articles for beginner writers and all those who want to learn how to write beautifully. Each of our visitors will be able to find something useful and exciting.
Not always business literature leaves such a pleasant aftertaste as Tom DeMarco's book "Deadline. A novel about project management." In it, the author talks about IT project management in a very interesting manner - the basic principles of management are presented in an artistic form on behalf of the main character, the sensible leader Mr. Tompkins. Thus, the book is read quite easily, and the situations that the characters of the book find themselves in and how they got out of them can be successfully applied in practice.
In this post, I would like to highlight those instructive moments that the author brings to us. Below we describe 10 things we think this book will teach you. Go.
“Still, I would like to imagine that somewhere on earth there is a place where the goal of the project is quality, not deadlines.
But that probably doesn't happen." Mr. Tompkins
1. People need to be given the job they are best suited for.
The protagonist of the book, Webster Tompkins, believes that the most difficult thing in the work of a leader is people. You need to find the right people for the job, and that's what good leaders do. To accomplish the tasks set, the leader must find the right people who will get you out of any trouble, no matter what mistakes you make. He believes that it is very important to correctly determine which work to entrust to whom.
Don't forget about motivation. To motivate a team, you need to be a strong leader. By giving people individual attention, but at the same time treating them as a team, you will succeed. One of the main tasks of the leader is to build a team that wants to continue to work together with such a composition.
2. People need change to succeed
The book deals with a very interesting situation. Let's describe the essence: a serious problem is discovered in a project approved by senior management. In order to follow the approved plan and solve the problem, you need to spend a lot of time, which in turn will lead to a delay in the delivery of the project. The project manager was ambiguously informed by senior management that the failure of the project was, shall we say, the end of his career.
To get out of the situation, the main character suggests making lungs changes to the original project to help complete it on time. But the manager cannot accept his offer, as he is worried about his position in the company. The situation seems hopeless, but the protagonist still convinces the manager to make changes to the plan taking full responsibility for these actions.
From this we can conclude that changes are sometimes necessary for the successful completion of work, but if a person does not feel safe, then he will resist these changes. A person will avoid risk feeling insecure, and this leads to the fact that he may miss all the benefits and opportunities that these changes could bring.
3. Threats to subordinates do not increase their productivity.
According to the author: threats are the most inappropriate type of motivation if you care about the performance of employees. The bottom line is that each task has a minimum execution time, which depends on many factors. This may be, for example, the qualifications of employees or the availability of appropriate tools. Of course, if the task is performed by an experienced employee, then the time to complete it will be much less than if it were performed by a beginner.
But if an unrealistically small amount of time is allotted to complete the task in advance, then no matter how you threaten your subordinates, they will not invest in this period. Also, the author makes an interesting observation that if the work was really not done in the allotted unrealistic time, then you will have to do what you "threatened" them.
4. For the success of the project, the team must have good relationships.
It was surprising to learn the opinion of the author that the manager cannot directly influence the formation good relations within your team. A manager can create the right environment for the development of healthy relationships in the team, lay the foundation and not hinder the development of these relationships. The author believes that one of the key factors for the success of the project is a well-coordinated team and effective communications with all other employees. In other words, we, at E-PAGES, pay special attention to just these points!
To "breathe the soul" into the team is the creation of this working atmosphere, where people work on a common cause, where there is a community of like-minded people who together solve tasks, engage in creativity and create new products. Without a well-coordinated team - where all its members are united, where everyone is moving towards one common goal - the project will not be completed on time, there will be no quality product.
The main task of a manager is to create a foundation for building a strong, well-coordinated team with warm and friendly relations within.
5. Improving team productivity takes a lot of effort.
"- But there must be some step ... some simple event that would increase the productivity of my programmers. Well, for example ...
- No, no, in our business there can be no simple measures, you can’t take it like that and quickly increase the productivity of work.
Productivity improvements are the result of long-term efforts. There are no short-term measures that will quickly raise the productivity of the team. One of the steps to improve productivity is to find and eliminate inefficiencies. You need to focus on not wasting time.
But where there is a waste of time, there are always risks. Risks need to be managed. The idea is that project management should be, in its own way, managing the risks that may arise in this project. It is necessary to detect and prevent risks in time. To do this, it is recommended to compile a list of risks in the project, this list should also include estimates of the likelihood of their occurrence in the project and determine a symptom or indicator that will identify the transformation of the risk into a problem.
6. Need to cut losses
"There are a thousand and one ways to waste a day and none to get that day back."
Loss reduction is one of the main ideas lean manufacturing and she simply could not be mentioned in this book. Cut your losses! Review your work processes, optimize them, identify unnecessary activities, distribute work evenly, use reliable and proven technologies, weigh everything when making a decision possible options, improve.
The sooner you stop unnecessary work, the better for the whole project. At the end of the project, leave the team to work in the same composition on the next project (if they agree), this can save time on the formation new team. In general, the author considers the true success of the project to be a formed team of people who are willing to work together further on the following tasks.
7. Increasing the number of people in the team does not mean that the work will be completed ahead of schedule.
The author believes that in a situation where software development work needs to be completed ahead of schedule, increasing the size of the team will not bring benefits, and even harm. It is much more difficult to manage a large team, it is much more difficult to create a positive working atmosphere, provide everything necessary for work, and promptly solve problems that have arisen. A large development team requires unnecessarily much coordination.
One of the creators of the Scrum methodology, Jeff Sutherland, does not recommend creating teams of more than seven people. After all, the number of communication channels for a team of 10 people is 45! This is a huge burden on the manager, which is very difficult for one person to cope with qualitatively.
8. You need to collect statistics about the results of your work
It is very useful to collect data about your work. How much time was spent on the project, on what type of work how much time was spent (for example, how much on layout, programming, testing), how much was spent on communication with the customer. Gather data that will help determine how well the project was done and what can be improved in the future.
With such data on your past work in hand, you can fairly accurately calculate your future performance and make predictions about your work in future projects. At the end of a project or a certain period, it is very useful at a team meeting to review and discuss the work done, to tell each other what was non-standard in this work, how this or that task was solved, to exchange experience. If there were problems in the project, it is also useful to discuss and fix these points, this will help not to stumble upon them in the future.
9. Pressure on your subordinates increases their productivity by only 6%
"Why does pressure on programmers increase productivity by only six percent?
You can put pressure on people, but they won't think faster because of it."
Management pressure on the team does not bring a big jump in the productivity of their work. Pressure from above cannot make people think faster. It may seem that in order to get more results, you can force your subordinates to work overtime, but the disadvantages overtime it is always mistakes, fatigue, lack of creative energy. Also, if people know they don't care about working late, they will lose more time during the day. Therefore, the author in the book even advises dispersing his employees home in the evening after the end of the working day.
We can draw the following conclusions: the more overtime work, the lower the productivity, short-term pressure helps the team to concentrate on the problem that has arisen, but long-term pressure is always bad. Management likes to apply pressure because they simply don't know what is right to do in such a situation, or they think that other ways to improve performance are too complicated.
10. Big teams at the start of a project are harmful.
At the start of the project a large number of people on the team will not do any good. The first stage of system development is the development of its architecture. Only a few people are needed to complete this stage with high quality. And what to do with the rest of the big team at this time? Therefore, we can safely say that a large team at the start of a project reduces the quality of the most important stage - design, because everyone else needs to be loaded with work as quickly as possible.
Handing out work to people and teams before the product design stage is complete does not create simple and effective models of interaction between people and teams, this will lead to a loss of independence, an increase in the number of meetings and meetings, and general dissatisfaction. Therefore, it is recommended to recruit a small team at the start of the project for the high-quality design of the future system and only then to take additional people into the team for a larger start of work.
Tom DeMarco
deadline. A novel about project management
Foreword
In the 1930s, physicist George Gamow of Colorado State University began publishing a mini-series of stories about a certain Mr. Tompkins, a middle-aged bank clerk. Mr. Tompkins, it appeared from these stories, was interested in modern science. He regularly attended the evening lectures of the local university professor and, of course, always fell asleep on the interesting place. And when he woke up, he found himself in some parallel world, where one of the basic laws of physics acted differently than in his world.
In one of these stories, for example, Mr. T. woke up in a universe where the speed of light was only fifteen miles an hour and could observe the effects of relativity while riding a bicycle. As he pedaled faster, the approaching buildings shrank in size, and the hands of the clock on the post office slowed down. The plot of another story was that Mr. Tompkins traveled to a world where Planck's constant was equal to one, and observed quantum mechanics in action, standing at a pool table: the balls did not roll smoothly on the surface, as usual, but assumed an unpredictable position, like quantum balls. particles.
I was introduced to Gamow's stories when I was a teenager. Like Mr. Tompkins, I was interested in modern science, by that time I had already read many books on quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity. But only after the stories about the unlucky bank clerk fell into my hands did I finally begin to understand what it was all about.
I have always admired how Gamow managed to describe complex scientific postulates in such an interesting and unobtrusive way. It seemed to me that some principles of project management could be described in the same form. And I decided to tell you, dear reader, a story about an experienced leader who ended up in some imaginary country where changes were made “from above” in various management rules. Thus was born (with my deepest apologies to George Gamow) the idea for this book, a story about a manager named Tompkins who finds himself in the former socialist republic of Morovia2 and is appointed to lead software projects.
Tom DeMarco,
Camden, Maine
May 1997
Dedicated to Sally (and who else!)
The widest possibilities
Mr. Tompkins sat in the back row of Baldridge 1, the main auditorium of the Big Telecommunications Corporation (Penelope, New Jersey). He'd spent quite a bit of time here in the last few weeks giving lectures to the layoffs. Mr. Tompkins and several thousand other professionals and middle managers like him were simply shown the door. Well, of course, no one spoke so rudely and straightforwardly. Commonly used phrases were: "downsizing", or "as a result of downsizing the company", or "optimizing the size of the company", or - and this option was the most wonderful of all - "we give the freedom to choose another job." For this last phrase, an abbreviation was immediately invented: SVDR. Tompkins was one such SVDR.
Today at Baldridge 1, another lecture was to be held on the topic "The broadest opportunities are right in front of us." As stated in the program, this series of lectures consisted of "more than a hundred hours of extremely exciting trainings, pieces, musical interludes and other activities for the newly minted SVDR" - and all in five weeks. Employees of the personnel department (who were not fired by anyone) were convinced that becoming an SVDR was the greatest happiness, but for some reason the rest did not understand this. Of course, they themselves really wanted to become SVDR. Honestly. But, alas, no luck so far. No, no, sir, for the time being they have to bear their burden: to receive regular salaries and promotions. And now they will rise to the stage and courageously continue their hard work.
The last few rows in the auditorium fell into what acoustic engineers call "dead." For some mysterious reason that no one has yet been able to explain, the sound from the stage practically did not penetrate here, so it was great to take a nap here. Tompkins always just sat there.
On the seat opposite, he laid out today's set of company gifts: two thick notebooks and other small items packed in a beautiful cloth bag with the company logo and the inscription: "Our company is losing weight, so everyone else can gain weight." On top of the bag lay a baseball cap with embroidery: "I am SVDR and I'm proud of it!" Tompkins stretched, pulled his baseball cap over his eyes, and within a minute was sound asleep.
At this time, the HR choir sang loudly on the stage: “The widest opportunities - let's open the door for them! Let's open it!" According to the plan of the performers, the audience had to clap their hands and sing along: “Let's open it!” To the left of the stage stood a man with a loudspeaker and cheered the audience with cries of "Louder, louder!" Several people clapped listlessly, but no one wanted to sing along. However, all this noise began to make its way even into the "dead zone" where Mr. Tompkins slept, and finally woke him up.
He yawned and looked around. Just a chair away from him, in the same "dead zone" someone was sitting. A real beauty. Thirty-something, smooth black hair, dark eyes. She looked at the silent performance on the stage and smiled slightly. There seemed to be no approval in that smile. It seemed to him that they had already met somewhere.
Did I miss anything? he turned to the stranger. She continued to watch the scene.
Just the most important.
Perhaps you can give me a brief description?
They tell you to get out, but at the same time they ask you not to change the telephone company through which you make long-distance calls.
Anything else?
Mmm... you slept for almost an hour. Let me remember. No, perhaps there was nothing more interesting. Some funny songs.
It's clear. The usual solemn performance of our HR department.
Ltd! Mr. Tompkins woke up... how should I say?... in a state of mild anger.
You know more than I do.” Mr. Tompkins held out his hand to her. - Very nice, Tompkins.
Hooligan, - the woman introduced herself, answering the handshake. Now that she turned to him, he could see her eyes: not just dark, but almost black. And he loved looking at them. Mr Tompkins found himself blushing.
Uh... Webster Tompkins. Maybe just Webster.
What a funny name.
Old Balkan name. Morovian.
And Hooligan?
Hmm, my mom's girlish indiscretion. He was an Irish merchant ship. Handsome deckhand. Mom has always been partial to sailors. Laxa chuckled, and Tompkins suddenly felt his heart beat faster.
Ah, he finally found it.
I think I've met you somewhere before, - it sounded like a question.
Met, - she confirmed.
Clearly, he still couldn't remember where it could be. Mr. Tompkins looked into the hall - next to them there was not a single living soul. They sat in a crowded auditorium and at the same time could easily communicate "one to one". He turned back to his charming companion.
Were you also given freedom of choice?
Not? Are you staying with this company?
Again, they didn't guess.
I don't understand anything.
I don't work here. I am a spy.
He laughed.
Say it too!
Industrial espionage. Have you heard of this?
Of course.
You do not believe me?
Well... you just don't look like a spy at all.
She smiled, and Mr. Tompkins' heart began to beat again. Of course, Laxa looked like a spy. Moreover, it was as if she was born in order to become a spy.
Uh… I mean, not quite the same.
Laxa shook her head.
I can prove it.
Then she unhooked a badge with a name and a surname and handed it to him.
Tompkins looked - on the card was the name "Laxa Hooligan", and under it was a photograph. "Wait a minute..." He looked closer. Everything seemed to look right, but the lamination… No, it's not a laminate at all. The card was just rolled up in plastic. He pulled back the transparent film and the photograph fell out. Beneath it was another photograph of a gray-haired man. And the name turned out to be pasted on a piece of sticky paper on top of the card! Having torn it off too, he read: "Storgel Walter."
You know, such a fake looks painfully unprofessional.
A cool but unrecognized IT manager, Webster Tompkins, first gets fired, then he is framed by a random beauty, drugged and taken to the small communist country of Morovia.
Fiction?
No. Basically, it's a project management book. In the form of a fantasy novel.
How do you like that? Meet the review of the book by Tom DeMarco "Deadline. A novel about project management!
Tom DeMarco
Tom DeMarco - Head of International consulting company Atlantic Systems Guild, which specializes in building complex business systems, risk management, reengineering, building a healthy corporate culture. She also assists in software-related litigation. Member of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Plot
The kidnapped Webster Tompkins will have to raise the economy of the small communist country of Morovia.
He has endless human and financial resources at his disposal. Webster is opposed by bureaucracy, stupid bosses and tight deadlines.
At the end of each chapter, Webster writes down the lessons learned in his notebook. These notes are the most valuable thing in the book for a manager.
Here are just a few of the topics covered in the book:
- Personnel selection.
- Employee motivation.
- Resolving conflicts within the company.
- Working hours, overtime.
- Reductions and transfers of employees.
- Boss is a tyrant.
How tired of textbooks!
While reading this book, I caught myself thinking about how tired I was of traditional textbooks. Rule - proof - examples - results. And water, water, water...
Healthy? Yes.
Boring? Oh yeah!
I devoured the thick book Deadline in three days. Webster's adventures are addictive, although the topic of the "textbook" was not very interesting to me.
The artistic format makes any textbook more interesting and useful. Why is it so rarely used in business literature?
Summary
An interesting novel about project management. Bright characters, humor, twisty plot - everything is in place.
Award-winning Tom DeMarco leads the Atlantic Systems Guild, a consulting center with offices in the US, Germany and the UK. A software engineer and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, recipient of the Jean-Dominique Warnier Lifetime Contribution to Information Science Award, DeMarco has proven himself to be a gifted writer, authoring nine books on management, organizational design, and systems engineering, as well as four works of fiction.
Konstantin Smygin, founder of the MakeRight.ru business literature summary service, shared with the website readers key ideas from the cult business novel The Deadline, which tells about the art of project management.
What is this book about
In short, Deadline is a book about project and people management.
At first, the book is perceived as a thriller, and only after some time the reader realizes that he has quite clear recommendations and practical advice on project management in a bright artistic shell.
The shell looks like this. Experienced project manager Mr Tompkins is about to be laid off. Suddenly, he is kidnapped by a beautiful stranger named Laxa, transported to the post-communist country of Morovia, which is ruled by the tyrant VVN (Great Leader of the Peoples).
Mr. Tompkins is offered to lead many projects at the same time, for a huge reward, giving complete freedom of action. The VVN tyrant, upon closer examination, turns out to be a young, good-natured businessman, with whom Tompkins immediately finds a common language. But VVN and Laxa are serving on business, and the dangerous type of Bellock, who embodies the worst features of a leader, replaces the "tyrant". He sets unattainable goals for Tompkins and the team, sets unrealistic deadlines, and in case of failure to comply with orders, he is ready to go for physical elimination. But Tompkins and the team, thanks to the intricacies of management, successfully extricate themselves from troubles.
Idea No. 1. The key to the success of any project is not in capital or technology, but in people
The idea is simple to the point of banality. However, it is the simple things that are most often forgotten when managing complex projects. In Morovia (almost like in) everything is there: opportunities, ideas, almost unlimited personnel and material resources. Only a couple of little things are missing: the right selection of personnel and a manager who, together with assistants, will make the project work.
According to DeMarco, all personnel management comes down to a few simple steps: first, find the right specialists and provide them suitable job; second, find the right motivation which will unite them into one well-coordinated team.
For Tompkins, working for Morovia is also an experiment to understand why some teams are successful and others are not, and they have the same task.
Idea No. 2. The right recruitment is based not so much on choosing an impressive resume, but on the intuition of the HR manager
Picking up a team to work on several projects, Tompkins asks for an assistant - and gets a strange woman, Belinda Blinda, former manager on personnel, who at one time burned out at work and became a vagabond.
Belinda takes the job, asking for a supermarket cart as her fee.
Instead of reading resumes, Belinda personally meets with suitable candidates and selects the right ones almost instantly, referring to her intuition. Tompkins, initially shocked, later admits that he himself would have chosen these people.
Because he likes them, and he feels that they like them.
This choice of team is akin to the choice of friends. People follow the leader because they love and respect him, and this is the only reason. Warm relations within the team are very important - and therefore the leader must have a big heart. In addition to the heart, the leader must have the "gut" (that same intuition) to determine right person and feel the situation as a whole, "soul" to breathe it into the project and the team, and "scent" to discard nonsense.
Idea number 3. Staff motivation should not be negative. Threats and pressure kill initiative, not speed up work
The ideal motivation for working in a team is merging with it, accepting its ideas, the same “team spirit”. Money and career component, professional growth are also quite appropriate. But if threats and goads are used - that is, negative motivation, this only slows down labor productivity, although many managers are of a different opinion.
In addition, if threats are not followed by punishment, this undermines the authority of the leader. You will either have to fulfill them, causing a wave of layoffs and discontent, or forget about them, exposing yourself as a frivolous person.
An ironic illustration of this idea is the story of VVN, who decided to become a tyrant because all his ideas were rejected. He complained that while he told the staff in detail what he would like, there were always skeptics explaining why it was impossible. This went on until he began to resort to spectacular threats like beheading or hanging on a hook. He never heard the word "no" again. No one objected to him, but still the subordinates did not meet the deadline.
Idea No. 4. In any organization, “perverse politics” can suddenly arise when leaders at any level forget about common interests and only care about personal goals, even if they are directly opposed to the general
Usually perverted politics is combined with threats and negative motivation, although it can take more elegant forms. The consequences of it can be any, so if you can not somehow stop it, you need to be ready to quit at any time.
One side of perverted politics is the "angry boss". According to DeMarco, some leaders are like strict parents who believe that "the belt is never enough." It is they who like to set unrealistic deadlines and punish them for non-compliance, although they themselves are well aware of the impracticability of their instructions. The villain Mr. Bellock (a typical "perverted politician") is a supporter of constant jerking and drill. The employee, in his opinion, should be poked in the nose every day on the deadline for the project and reminded that he is not coping with his duties.
But just as children who are constantly punished will sooner or later learn to cheat and deceive strict parents, so subordinates will learn to swindle, and not to be quick. You can force a person to work overtime, but his productivity will not increase from this - he will not think faster. Programmers know how to deceive the authorities - after all, they, in the words of one of the heroes, are "born cynics."
Anger and disrespect are passed along the chain from senior leaders to the middle tier. Meanwhile, according to De Marco, if the boss constantly breaks down on his subordinates, this means that it is time to remove him from his post, since fear is always behind anger.
Other forms of perverted politics are malice and stinginess, which are always based on the fear of failure.
Idea #5: Software teams inevitably have conflicts of interest that need to be handled by a catalyst middleman.
Noticing that there are conflicts in the teams, Tompkins calls a meeting to discuss the problem. First, during the discussion, thoughts are born about training seminars, inviting an international conflict expert, studying relevant literature. Finally, one of Tompkins' assistants, General Markov, nominates a former educator kindergarten maestro Dianyar, who seems to be doing nothing special, but conflicts in his presence subside by themselves, and he does not even understand how this happens. Such people DeMarco calls "catalyst man".
Tompkins' team still manages to get a professional expert for one evening, and he too comes up with the idea of a third party intermediary helping to find an acceptable solution for everyone. The conflicting parties must be explained that in fact they are like-minded people, and the real enemy is their common problem.
The catalyst man Maestro Dianyar, accepted into the conflicting team, did nothing special - he just told stories that fit the occasion. At first, this annoyed many, then people took out ideas and morals from each such tale, and gradually the conflicts faded away.
People-catalysts, according to DeMarco, help to unite the team, to feel a common goal, although outwardly they do not seem to do anything special. Their role is especially important for conflict resolution.
Idea No. 6. Project management is risk management
Before proceeding with the implementation of the project, its weakest points should be identified and the consequences should be assessed. Create a list of such weaknesses, estimate their cost and find an indicator that indicates that the risk has become a problem.
Many organizations do not communicate risks to superiors. It learns about everything last, when it is no longer possible to hide the problem. We need to find a way to do this in time, either through anonymous sources or through a specific person who manages the risks.
Idea No. 7. The process of developing programs and managing projects is conveniently modeled using drawings.
To calculate the risks and understand the principles of the project, according to DeMarco, it is possible to build models that will clearly depict all the assumptions. The characters in the book are constantly drawing diagrams to support their theories, discussing them with colleagues, and correcting them in the process of discussion.
At the end of the project, it will be interesting to compare the real result with the model shown, thus checking whether the assumptions were correct.
Idea No. 8. One of the main goals of any software development project is a well-coordinated team, ready to work together and further.
Projects, like leaders, come and go, but people stay. They have learned to work together, which is not easy when building a product. There is no need to add newcomers to their well-coordinated team and inevitably spend time training them. They are not shaken by conflicts, they understand each other perfectly. If in the course of work it was possible to create at least one such team of like-minded people working as a single organism, then no deadline is terrible for her. They know how to properly manage their time.
Is this book helpful?
The book simply and clearly explains the basics of management theory, the principles of working with personnel, since, according to the author, there are no projects without people, which managers do not always understand. She teaches how to deal with conflicts and meet deadlines. At the same time, it helps to recognize in time the signs of a “perverted policy” and the precarious position of the organization, when it is much more reasonable to leave its ranks than to fight the nonsense and incompetence of the leadership.
In general, the book will be useful to both the leader and the ordinary employee. And of course, the book has long been required reading for those who create software products.
What are the advantages of the book
The strengths of the book include its sincerity and the warmth with which DeMarco talks about working with people. There are many subtleties in this work that have not been touched upon by the authors of other business novels. The author has a great sense of humour, good language, talent for writing (not without reason has he recently switched to fiction, earning critical acclaim). Sometimes features of social satire appear in the book, sometimes - a utopian novel, which slightly distracts from the main line, but does not spoil it.
Are there any flaws in the book?
The disadvantages include great amount secondary characters. Some characters appear only to say a few words and disappear forever. Perhaps the author had his own ideas (like the opponent of any reduction in personnel), but they are not very clear to the reader.
In addition, allowance should be made for the time of publication of the novel - 1997. Since then, new approaches to project management have appeared, based on flexibility (""), so the reader will not find comprehensive and up-to-date information on project management in the book.
Nevertheless, DeMarco's book's merits more than make up for its shortcomings, and even critics of the book and Tom DeMarco's literary ability generally acknowledge that the book contains many useful ideas about project management.
