Peopleware

Continuing his voyage, Jason Bennett has submitted his review of Peopleware. This is a book about how to run an office in the age of the "information worker". Not about coding, but about creating environments in which the work we are all used can be done. So, if you are interested (or have a manager who should read this), click below.

Peopleware
author	Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister
pages
publisher	Dorset House
rating	10/10
reviewer	Jason Bennett
ISBN	0-932633-05-6
summary	An excellent book about how an office should be run. If you consider yourself an "intellect worker," read this book and apply its principles.

Background

I apologize for the missed week. I was finishing up my report for work on this book, and didn't get around to my Slashdot review. I've also ended up changing the schedule, since this review was available, and Creating a Software Engineering Culture would have required duplicating a lot of work. Anyway, we'll get to it next week. I'm also currently reading Built to Last, an excellent book about what makes the difference between a decent company and a great ("visionary") company. I'm not sure that review belongs on Slashdot, but reader demand will help to influence that. :-)

What's the book about?

Peopleware is the collected knowledge of two long-time project managers. Specifically, they deal with what is wrong with how managers treat their people, and what is wrong with the work environment itself. The book talks in terms of software projects, but is useful to anyone who falls in to the category of "intellect worker"; in other words, those people who need to concentrate to work, as opposed to those who work in "interrupt mode."

Peopleware is organized into many separate, but related, essays. Once again, I'll be dealing with the book in chunks:

1. Managing the Human Resource (ch. 1-6)
2. The Office Environment (ch. 10-13)
3. The Right People (ch. 14-17)
4. Growing Productive Teams (ch. 18-23)
5. It's Supposed to Be Fun to Work Here (ch. 24-26)

"Managing the Human Resource" deals with how intellect workers should be treated. The main theme of the book is summed up on page 4: "The major problems of our work are not so much technological as sociological in nature." Ultimately, projects do not fail because people cannot understand the technology, but because the team itself breaks (or is broken). Workers must be treated as people, not as parts of a machine. So much of managerial theory assumes some sort of non-intellectual, "assembly line" development (be it a car plant or burger joint). Using these kinds of adversarial, non-thinking tactics will ruin an environment of people who are paid to think. Because those workers think, each one is unique and irreplaceable. You can't mine your "human resources" from the ground.

"The Office Environment" is one of the most focused, devastatingly effective parts I've read in a while. D&L systematically demolish the theory of cheap, open space, the notion that the environment does not effect people, and the notion that workspace is the place to save money. Consider that the cost of a worker's space is 1/20th of his salary over the average time he stays at one company (2 years). If a poor environment hampers that worker's productivity, the money saved in building that environment will be more than overshadowed by the extra time required for the worker to complete tasks. In fact, there are 11:1 differences in productivity between the best and worst organization. Should you be working 10 times more than you should?

The thesis behind "The Right People" is that it is critical to hire the best people in the first place, as a manager is not likely to mold a worker himself. Therefore, managers should strive to hire the people who will do the best job and complement the team the most, not the people who will most conform to some arbitrary standard. Allowing teammates to assist in the process, and keeping a long-term focus to reduce turnover, will help the situation.

"Growing Productive Teams" focuses on the concept of "jelled teams." These teams, where the members are highly focused on the goal, are much more productive than the individual members could ever be. These teams are difficult to make, but easy to destroy. Managers who give their people freedom and trust are most likely to produce excellent teams. Excellent organizations, the ones that focus on quality, eliteness, and protecting teams, are also likely to produce jelled teams.

"It's Supposed to Be Fun to Work Here" proposes just that: work should be fun. That doesn't mean that the ideal job would be fun, it means that a good manager can and should make work enjoyable for his charges. Doing different things, such as war games and pilot projects, along with giving people as much freedom to define their own jobs as possible, are good ways to make work fun again. The time to act is now.

What's Good?

As I read this book, I felt that every paragraph had something to say. D&L are constantly throwing out important points, backed by data or their own experience. Everyone who works as an "intellect worker" can likely relate to some of the problems in this book, and the points presented can improve any workplace. Pick this book up, read it, and find something to improve. Your coworkers will thank you for it.

What's Bad?

While I can't say there's anything bad about this book, the audience is a little more focused than some books I've reviewed here. Independent contractors, or others who tend to work on their own, and people who don't live at a desk probably won't relate to a lot of this book.

What's In It For Us?

Redhat had better conform to this book, or else.... No, just kidding. Seriously, in terms of "open source" relevance, I'm sure you can configure your virtual office any way you like. However, given that a jelled team is much more productive than random groups of people, it would seem that team-directed efforts should try to strengthen the committee as much as possible.

Purchase the book over at Amazon.

• Acknowledgements
• Preface

1. Managing the Human Resource
   1. Somewhere Today, a Project Is Failing
   2. Make a Cheeseburger, Sell a Cheeseburger
   3. Vienna Waits for You
   4. Quality -- If Time Permits
   5. Parkinson's Law Revisited
   6. Laetrile
2. The Office Environment
   1. The Furniture Police
   2. "You Never Get Anything Done Around Here Between 9 and 5"
   3. Saving Money on Space
   • Intermezzo: Productivity Measurement and Unidentified Flying Objects
   1. Brain Time Versus Body Time
   2. The Telephone
   3. Bring Back the Door
   4. Taking Umbrella Steps
3. The Right People
   1. The Hornblower Factor
   2. Hiring a Juggler
   3. Happy to Be Here
   4. The Self-Healing System
4. Growing Productive Teams
   1. The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts
   2. The Black Team
   3. Teamicide
   4. A Spaghetti Dinner
   5. Open Kimono
   6. Chemistry for Team Formation
5. It's Supposed to Be Fun to Work Here
   1. Chaos and Order
   2. Free Electrons
   3. Holgar Dansk

• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index