The Mythical Man-Month Ch 4 - 6

Summary

Chapter 4 – Aristocracy, Democracy, and System Design – This chapter is about the importance of conceptual integrity, which means that a system reflects one set of design ideas, instead of many uncoordinated ideas. We tend to think more features is better, but in reality that does not help achieve conceptual integrity as it actually makes the system harder and more complicated to use. Ease of use, then, dictates unity of design. Another problem with achieving this is the fact that systems are built my many people, and in turn many heads that think differently. Separating architecture from implementation or using the structuring programming implementation of teams talked in the last chapter can resolve this.

Chapter 5 – The Second-System Effect – this chapter is about the tendency of small, elegant, and successful systems to have bad systems as their successors. The chapter gives several examples of this. The best way to avoid the second-system effect is to be aware that it exists and pay extra attention when developing the second system.

Chapter 6 – Passing the Word – this chapter is about teamwork and how to make sure everyone is on the same page when working on a project together. There are several ways of making this happen. First, have very specific and precise written specifications about the system. Second, require the implementation to include a macro. Third, meet face-to-face with the team a lot. Fourth, understand and accept that there should be more than one implementation of the system. Fifth, keep a telephone log of the team calls and questions. Lastly, test your product a lot!

Discussion

I think it is interesting how all the books we are reading overlap at some point. Chapter 6 of this book talks about teamwork and Chapter 4 about the importance of design as a whole. The chapters have the same ideas as the other books, which I agree with. Mainly that system should be easy to use and have an overall design and idea. Also, teamwork is obviously one of the most important parts of developing a system and it must be monitored closely.