The Mythical Man-Month

Essays on Software Engineering

Frederick P. Brooks Jr. | 4.28 | 13,659 ratings and reviews

Recommended by Jeff Bezos, Andrew Chen, Alan Kay, and 4 others. See all reviews

Ranked #3 in Software Engineering, Ranked #4 in Technical — see more rankings.

Few books on software project management have been as influential and timeless as The Mythical Man-Month. With a blend of software engineering facts and thought-provoking opinions, Fred Brooks offers insight for anyone managing complex projects. These essays draw from his experience as project manager for the IBM System/360 computer family and then for OS/360, its massive software system. Now, 20 years after the initial publication of his book, Brooks has revisited his original ideas and added new thoughts and advice, both for readers already familiar with his work and for readers discovering... more

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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Mythical Man-Month from the world's leading experts.

Jeff Bezos Founder/Amazon[From "The Everything Store", written by Brad Stone] “An influential computer scientist makes the counterintuitive argument that small groups of engineers are more effective than larger ones at handling complex software projects. The book lays out the theory behind Amazon’s two pizza teams,” Stone writes. (Source)

Andrew Chen General Partner/Andreessen HorowitzRecommends this book

Alan Kay An early look and experience with timeless truths (and gotchas) from systems building with teams (Source)