Dreaming in Code isn’t in stores till Tuesday, but there’s already been quite a bit of coverage.
Today saw Paul Boutin’s review in the Wall Street Journal (subscriber-only content, I’m afraid). I’m very happy the Journal chose to assign my book to a writer with Boutin’s experience and expertise in the software world. Also pleased with the review’s length and prominence. And I loved the illustration — a Sisyphus shouldering a boulder of code.
One thing Boutin noted made me smile as I read it: “His goal seems to be to teach non-programming managers not how to fix late projects, but how to accept them.” I can just see myself hanging out the guru shingle and peddling the Zen of project management!
In truth, my goal wasn’t to teach anyone anything. I neither promise nor deliver bullet-points of how-to advice. For me, the best non-fiction provides readers with an initiation into the complexity and fascination of a world that they barely even knew existed. I’m happiest when I hear from a reader who feels that I accomplished at least some of that.
But certainly I came to the conclusion, based on the evidence, that late software projects are — maybe not forever, but probably in our lifetimes — a fact of life. They are like quarreling among children or rebelliousness in adolescents. These are things we can mitigate, certainly, and learn to cope with better, or even sometimes turn to our advantage. But we are foolish if we think we can “fix” them or eliminate them. Sanity dictates some sort of accommodation with this kind of reality.
Boutin also concluded the review with a question to me about the principle I jokingly dub “Rosenberg’s Law” in the book. I actually have a lot to say about in response. But I must leave that for a post of its own!
Scott Berkun, who unlike me really does have a lot to teach people about how to avoid the pitfalls of bad project management, has also written up a measured and well-reasoned response to the book. And Rick Kleffel has some entertaining thoughts on the topic even before reading the book:
One of the most interesting aspects of my interview with Vernor Vinge was the point where we talked about what might suggest that we were or were not going to experience the Singularity in a manner described by most science fiction writers. Vinge suggested that the failure or success of large-scale software development projects would be a fine way to measure our progress towards the Infocalypse. Judging by the events described in ‘Dreaming in Code’, well, it appears that the Singularity Is Not Quite So Near as one might hope, if one were to hope It Is Near.
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