Software Engineering discussion

People issues in software engineering are very important, yet the bookshelves are dominated by books that cover only technical issues. This book fills an important, underserved, niche. I like the short essay format and the overall concise, yet interesting, writing style. The anecdotes helped keep me engaged. The topics ranged from the obvious to the very insightful. The "Son of Peopleware" section, an update to the first edition, was my favorite.

One the minus side, this book (despite the update section) is showing its age, with references to things like office-wide paging systems and even the use of the telephone. Also, I think that this type of book gets cyclical interest. In good times, managers search for techniques to increase morale and retention. During hard times, these topics usually get pushed to the back burner, especially when they cost money.

4/5 Stars.

I enjoyed reading this book. As its title suggests book concentration is on main force driving businesses– people. This book contains observations, examples, and reasons for issues in relationship between people in different levels of a company and some suggestions and hints how these issues can be resolved. Basically, this book is trying to advocate our “rights” to develop software the way we want it and explain our managers why it might be beneficial for our business to keep it that way. I guess this is the main reason for me liking this book. I hope this book does make a difference in a real business world. 3/5 starts (liked it)