The Mythical Man Month

Since the first publication of
The Mythical Man-Month
in 1975, no software engineer' s bookshelf has been complete without it. Many software engineers and computer scientists have claimed to be " on their second or third copy" of the book.

This edition is an enhanced re-release of the Brooks classic. Included are all of the existing essays that were originally presented, with the addition of three new essays assessing the current status of software project management. Brooks' s well-known 1986 article,
No Silver Bullet
, is also included.

Few books on software project management have been as influential and timeless as
The Mythical Man-Month
. With a blend of software engineering facts and thought-provoking opinions, Fred Brooks offers insight for anyone managing complex projects. These essays draw from his experience as project manager for the IBM System/360 computer family and then for OS/360, its massive software system. Now, 20 years after the initial publication of his book, Brooks has revisited his original ideas and added new thoughts and advice, both for readers already familiar with his work and for readers discovering it for the first time.

The added chapters contain (1) a crisp condensation of all the propositions asserted in the original book, including Brooks' central argument in
The Mythical Man-Month:
that large programming projects suffer management problems different from small ones due to the division of labor; that the conceptual integrity of the product is therefore critical; and that it is difficult but possible to achieve this unity; (2) Brooks' view of these propositions a generation later; (3) a reprint of his classic 1986 paper " No Silver Bullet" ; and (4) today' s thoughts on the 1986 assertion, " There will be no silver bullet within ten years. "