An important factor
that we often don’t get to read about is the style of management required in
the software industry. The authors asset (very correctly) that a different
style of management is required in a development environment as opposed to a
production environment. Some of the classic mistakes managers make when they
fail to understand this difference are; setting unrealistic and unattainable
deadlines, making people work overtime, searching for a silver bullet, to
achieve higher productivity, pleasing the upper management, etc., are all
addressed quite impressively. The authors must have seen some near disasters
when people have compromised on the personal front by being too involved in
the professional matters. This part of the book makes for interesting
reading. The authors have also listed some of the false hopes that managers
have while managing software projects.
The authors very
rightly drive home the point that the manager’s function is not to make
people work, but to make it possible for people to work. They lay a strong
emphasis in having a healthy, work-conducive environment and more
importantly the act of hiring people. The three reasons listed for high
turnover is wonderful and I can only guess that people will learn from this.
As it is well known that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, it
is very true that a successfully bonded team can overcome enormous
obstacles. The points mentioned about bringing such a team into place are
quite superb. The authors put across the point that the purpose of a team is
not goal attainment but goal alignment. I will only be happy if some
managers get up and say that they are in line with what the authors say with
respect to the concept of having a team. We could do justice to this epic
work by making this book a mandatory reading in all project management
courses / studies / training.
In short the book
is one of the greatest works about the software industry. The value addition
that this book brings to software management is phenomenal, because the book
has to do with people, people, and more people who are the biggest assets of
the industry. Buy this book, and most importantly read it as many number of
times as possible.
