ABSTRACT:
Over the course of a distinguished career, Joe Marasco earned a reputation as the go-to software project manager: the one to call when you were facing a brutally tough, make-or-break project. Marasco reflected on his experiences in a remarkable series of “Franklin’s Kite” essays for The Rational Edge, Rational and IBM’s online software development magazine. Now, Marasco collects
and updates those essays, bringing his unique insights (and humor) to everything from modeling to scheduling, team dynamics to compensation. The result: a new classic that deserves a place alongside Frederick Brooks’ The Mythical Man-Month in the library of every developer and software manager.
Highlights include:
• How software projects resemble other projects—and how
they’re different
• The iterative problem-solving clock: ending the day with
real solutions
• The realities of scheduling: How late are you going to be?
• Trade-offs, estimating, project rhythm, and getting products out the door
• Understanding what you’re seeing, hearing, and feeling as
a software manager
• The human element: politics, negotiation, compensation,
culture, and growth
• Avoiding crises before they happen... and mitigating them
when they do
• Thinking laterally: original ideas in software project management
