I finally finished Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg. It was
initially hailed as the Soul of a New Machine for a new generation. As
such, it fails. Its depiction of the process and the characters
involved is just not that compelling. It's not poorly written, it just
isn't outstanding. It is, however, an interesting look into the realm
of software process theory.
Scott was given inside access to the team creating Chandler.
Chandler is Mitch Kapor's project to create a new e-mail/calendar
application. Something akin to Outlook but much more flexible. Scott
tells us about the formative stages, the constant changes in direction,
the endless meetings. Some interesting characters like Andy Hertzfeld
were part of the team. As a description of a software project, it is
palatable, but not exciting.
We're given a view of what can
only be described as a failure. Chandler may become a success
eventually, but it's taken over 4 years and is still not ready for
prime-time. It is this failure that provides the interesting part of
the book. Many software projects run aground, but most do so behind
closed doors. It is rare to have a chance to observe a failure and
analyze what happened. Perhaps this opportunity will give us some
insights into why things failed which can be applied to avoid failures
in our own projects. I've posted elsewhere with my ideas on this.
Scott
seems to have decided that a description of a failed software process
was only moderately interesting and gives us an overview of much of the
modern theory of software project management. He references the
writings of Fred Brooks, Alan Kay, Joel Spolsky,
and many others. These discussions are interspersed throughout the
text and make up the bulk of the last third of the book. In my opinion,
the book is worth reading just for this content. It's a great
introduction to the subject and would make a good jumping-off point for
more detailed research.
Overall, I recommend reading this book if
software theory is something you find interesting. If you are looking
for a history book telling the story of a small team creating something
amazing, stick to the original classic.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/steverowe/archive/2007/07/17/dreaming-in-code.aspx
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