The Deadline

Starting the week off in our customary fashion Jason Bennett sent in his latest book review. This time around, we're looking at The Deadline, written by Tom DeMarco. This book takes on a might-as-well-be-true story about some of the problems with software development management. Click below to read more.

The Deadline
author	Tom DeMarco
pages
publisher	Dorset House
rating	9/10
reviewer	Jason Bennett
ISBN	0-932633-39-0
summary	DeMarco has extended his writing from Peopleware in an interesting form: allegorical novel. Tom Clancy isn't shaking in his boots, but as a pedagogical tool, the fiction works quite well. Some excellent points are made regarding project management and dealing with evil managers.

Background

Greetings once again, all. This week we're taking a trek back toward project work with DeMarco's latest work. The allegory has been done before elsewhere (I personally enjoyed Alice in Quantumland ), but I don't believe it's been used in this realm before. I've got another book or two under my belt before I'll need to pause for a reload. For now, though, The Deadline....

What's the book about?

Technically, it's a fictional story about Webster Tompkins, a "downsized" project manager from BT&T (yeah, figure that out). He's hired to work in Moravia for NNL (the Nation's Noble Leader) to turn the country into a software powerhouse. DeMarco then concocts a scenario where Tompkins endures most of the typical problems of a software project manager. He has quite a nice brain trust working with him to help him along and bring out new solutions. The kicker is, since most every software engineer in the country is involved, they have tons more people than they need. Thus, they set up multiple teams for each product in a software engineering laboratory, to test out different ideas. Sprinkled throughout are bad bosses, bad subordinates, staffing issues, metrics, interesting new techniques, various complications, and plenty of DeMarco's own ideas.

What's Good?

The conceit is an interesting idea, and the narrative tends to flow well. There are plenty of scenarios included in the book, and lots of new ideas that you likely haven't tried are mentioned as well. Also, DeMarco summarizes the points he's made in each chapter with a "journal entry" of Mr. Tompkins, in case the reader misses the point of the story. The references to various famous people are also nice, if only because DeMarco tends to summarize what that person believes about a certain issue (yes, even our favorite nemesis makes an appearance). Overall, the story flows quite well, and if you are a project manager, or are on a project team, you can learn from this book. In general, remember the essentials of good management: "get the right people, match them to the right jobs, keep them motivated, and help the team jell and stay that way. Everything else is administrivia."

What's Bad?

Unfortunately, at times the conceit breaks down. DeMarco isn't exactly a great fiction writer (the romantic parts aren't well staged), although admittedly that isn't the point of the book. Also, at times the book's plot is somewhat staged in order to accommodate all of the lessons that DeMarco wants to put in. I also happen to disagree with a few points that DeMarco makes (especially as relates to CMM), but he always has a point, at the very least.

What's In It For Us?

This book is an excellent companion to two previous books that I've reviewed, DeMarco's Peopleware and McConnell's Software Project Survival Guide This book takes a somewhat different tact, of course, and end sup synthesizing the two books. While McConnell deals with process, and Peopleware deals more with employees, Deadline deals with the people issues from the manager's standpoint. Anyone who manages (or participates in!) a software project, whether commercial or open source, will run into the problems detailed in The Deadline. It's always better to be prepared beforehand!

Purchase the book over at Amazon.

1. Preface
2. Opportunity Knocking
3. Standing Up to Kalbfuss
4. Silikon Valejit
5. The CD-ROM Plant
6. NNL
7. The World's Greatest Project Manager
8. Taking On Staff
9. The Eminent Dr. Rizzoli
10. Ex-General Markov
11. Abdul Jamid
12. The Sinister Minster Belok
13. The Numbers Man
14. QuickerStill
15. Moravia's First Programmer
16. Think Fast!
17. Planning for the Summer Games
18. The Guru of Conflict Resolution
19. Maestro Diyeniar
    Interlude
20. Part and Whole
21. Standing on Ceremony
22. Endgame Begins
23. The Year's Hottest IPO
24. Passing Through Riga on the Way Home