Main Page. The Mythical Man-Month. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering is a book on software engineering and project management by Fred Brooks, whose central theme is that "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later". This idea is known as Brooks' law, and is presented along with the second-system effect and advocacy of prototyping.
Brooks' observations are based on his experiences at IBM while managing the development of OS/360. He had added more programmers to a project falling behind schedule, a decision that he would later conclude had, counter-intuitively, delayed the project even further. He also made the mistake of asserting that one project — writing an ALGOL compiler — would require six months, regardless of the number of workers involved (it required longer). Ideas presented[edit] The mythical man-month[edit] Brooks discusses several causes of scheduling failures. Therefore, assigning more programmers to a project running behind schedule will make it even later. The manual[edit] A Software Requirement Management Tool. Simple software to help you get organized: 37signals. QSM Home: SLIM® Software Cost Estimation and Project Management.