Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams, 2nd Ed.
Author: Tom Demarco, Timothy Lister, Timothy R. Lister
List Price: $33.95
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ISBN: 0932633439
Publisher: Dorset House (01 February, 1999)
Sales Rank: 345
Average Customer Rating: 4.91 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Excellent
I recommend this book to anyone involved in software development, office design, or management of knowledge workers. A very easy read for both techies and non-techies alike. Programmers and engineers will be nodding their heads in agreement. One of the few books that deals with work-space and the impact it has on productivity (statistics are included). It also deals with the management of skills within the software development group, with approaches to handling the varied skills found in the team. Give it to your boss, your CEO, your CIO, and your technical staff.
Rating: 5 out of 5
One of the best books ever written about the workplace.
The book was written about software development projects, but is absolutely loaded with insight not just on that subject, but on management styles and workplace conditions and rules. One can read this book and become genuinely excited about the potential explosion of productivity, hand-in-hand with employee job satisfaction, that could occur if managers would simply follow the advice given by the authors on how to be effective workplace leaders.Alas, it probably won't ever happen. Several years ago, the large (Fortune 20) company I worked for brought in Timothy Lister to present the book and the ideas in it to management prior to the start of a major software project. Lister did an excellent job presenting his and DeMarco's philosophy. The managers nodded sagely and showed every sign of comprehending and accepting the concepts contained in the book. Then Lister left, the project started, and the managers immediately reverted to the old style: setting unrealistic deadlines, pressuring employees to deliver more and more in less and less time, and in general following every tired old management strategy that almost always leads to a failed project -- as indeed, it did in this case.
So read this book, learn from it, and enjoy it (it's an easy, entertaining read) -- even if your managers are too stupid to profit from it.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Total Agreement, Except on One Crucial Point
This book is as essential as everyone here makes it out to be. However, the authors' development of the notion of teamicide needs to be seriously questioned. While there is some truth to their characterization of incentive-based systems or tracking through testing having the ability to go haywire, the stated anti-postulate reads like an articulation of the doctrine of the soviet. No individuals' performances can be acknowledged to the group? At all times it must be enforced that the only goal is the group goal? This is the only dark ray in an otherwise wonderful collection of great insights. The reality is that a balance must be struck. I know balance and shades of gray are not popular in our polarizing, cartoon times, but politically, both the extreme Horatio Alger and the notion of the great state have crashed and burned. Truly, what is needed are more plural forms of organization. Similar Products
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