Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!sei!bwb
From: bwb@sei.cmu.edu (Bruce Benson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Me, a manager??
Keywords: no no no no no no
Message-ID: <7459@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 7 Jun 90 14:19:09 GMT
References: <802@sagpd1.UUCP> <_'`$'1+@masalla.fulcrum.bt.co.uk>
Reply-To: bwb@sei.cmu.edu (Bruce Benson)
Organization: Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 25

In article <_'`$'1+@masalla.fulcrum.bt.co.uk> tjo@its.bt.co.uk (Tim Oldham) writes:
>In article <802@sagpd1.UUCP> jharkins@sagpd1.UUCP (Jim Harkins) writes:
>>[How do you manage?]
>
>Start with Drucker's ``Management: Tasks, Responsibilites, Practices''
>and go from there. It pays to start at the top and understand what the
>aims of management are. Personal opinion: everybody should read this book.

Missed the original message by Jim, so this may be a bit off base.  The
best book I've read about managing programmers was: Managing Software
People by Phillip Metzger (the title may be a bit off).  The book is short,
readable, and obviously by someone who has actually managed software
people (i.e. matches many of my own experiences).  A book for putting the
whole software PROCESS together is: Managing the Software Process by
Watts Humphrey, again by someone who obviously had done it for a living.

Too many books/articles on software management are *academic* where 100
businesses/projects/etc are studied and generalized from.  While this
is interesting and useful, sometimes I would rather hear a complete story
from one individual who has done well in the field.  

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