Customer Reviews

Managing A Programming Project: Processes and People (3rd Edition)

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This book gives a great understanding of what to expect and how to react to programming software projects. Although not set up for the Web world, the book still offers good insight on the dos and don'ts of software management.

This book is a godsend. I still have the first edition. I've been using this book since college. I have managed hundreds of programming projects and found this book (and earlier editions) a must. All my projects originate around this process. The result is having my programming projects on time and on budget.

In 1983, I was privileged to attend a one week project management course put on IBM. It was an excellent course. But perhaps the best thing about the course was that IBM gave each student a new copy of two books that were essential to appreciating the material taught in the course. The two books were "The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker and "Managing a Programming Project" by Phillip Metzger. These two books still probably stand today as the two really essential guides to effectiveness in a modern career in information technology. I've just now finished rereading Metzger's wonderful book. And it seemed therefore a fine occasion to offer some thoughts on this truly wonderful book.

The book presents a simple, easy to understand, yet complete and rigorous guide to the management of a software development project. Metzger takes the posture that his reader is the manager of a moderately sized software development project. Interestingly, his definition of a moderately sized project, when the book was first written, now three decades ago, was a team of approximately forty individual contributors with the appropriate levels of management. Today, we have learned to run most of our software projects leaner. However, the teachings that Metzger shares still resonate.

Metzger's book actually goes quite well both with Drucker's classic on general management, "The Effective Executive", and with "The Mythical Man-month" by Frederick Brooks. All three of these excellent books provide the reader with sound guidelines and wonderfully tried and true philosophical statements relative to the accomplishment of work in modern organizations. We strongly recommend all three. Yet, Metzger's book, in a way, stands apart. I'd direct the attention of readers in particular to Metzger's final chapter on making a difference. There, Mr. Metzger shares that a manager can, and does, make a huge difference in the lives of people around him. It is vital to keep in mind that this difference can be hugely positive, or otherwise, dependent entirely on how thoughtfully and carefully the manager goes about his important business. It is a tremendously important lesson for all those blessed with significant responsibility in modern organizations. If you are so charged, I commend this wonderful book to you strongly. God bless.

i am sure this book is very helpful for most programmer, manager and even though you are beside of programming business.

but, the writer wrote this book with a lot of old word or slang like.
i am not the native speaker, so i put my dictionary on my desk when i read this book.

but, the content itself is wonderful..