I would everyone advise to read
Frederick P. Brooks: The Mythical Man-Month. Essays on Software Engineering
Brooks was manager of IBM's OS/360, the classical mammoth operating
system of the nineteen-sixties. He wrote this book in 1975 (it is still
in print) about what can go wrong in designing large software systems.
Characteristically, the cover shows a few dinosaurs slowly sinking under
in a morass. He also advises about how software projects *should* be
organised, and it is eery to see how Open Software projects work exactly
along these lines nowadays. Some quotes from the 1995 reprint:
(p. 30) Very good professional programmers are *ten times* as productive
as ordinary ones at the same training and two-year experience level.
(p. 32) Software projects should be organized like a surgical team
rather than a hog-butchering team, that is, instead of each member
cutting away on the problem, one does the cutting and the others give hm
every support that will enhance his effectiveness and productivity. A
small sharp core team is best.
(p. 44) Conceptual integrity is *the* most important consideration in
system design. It dictates that the design must proceed from one mind,
or from a very small number of agreeing resonant minds
(p. 62) The manual is the *external* specification of the product. It
describes and prescribes every detail of what the user sees. As such, it
is the chief product of the architect (software engineer)
(p. 111) Writing decisions down is essential
(p. 169) Make your programs self-documenting
(p. 231) Good cooking takes time; some tasks cannot be hurried without
spoiling the result..
(p. 234) The project manager's best friend is his daily adversary, the
independent product-testing organisation (nowadays the mailing list).
(p. 257) Conceptual integrity is central to product quality. Having a
system architect is the most important single step toward conceptual
integrity
Last but not least, the book is beautifully written. Everyone who wants
to learn writing good essayistic English should have a long, thoughtful
look at it.
Jan
On 6-1-2010 6:35, Michael Sumner wrote:
Hello,
I thought this article would be of interest to the gdal-dev community:
See page 5, "Aspects of the Social Organization and Trajectory of the
R Project".
http://journal.r-project.org/archive/2009-2/RJournal_2009-2.pdf
In particular I found this interesting:
"Many open-source projects, such as the Linux operating system, have
strongly hierarchical structures, and some, such as Perl, revolve
around a central individual. . . . Although I haven’t formally
surveyed the many existing open source projects, the R Project is
apparently unusual in its flat formal organization of independent
volunteers. This structure has attracted a remarkably talented and
competent group of individuals, but, as I will argue later in this
aper, it poses challenges for moving the R Project forward."
Regards, Mike.
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