Johanna Rothman
Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2007
Johanna Rothman
ISBN 0978739248
Buy it from Amazon.com
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk
Marketing people often talk about "viral spread" and "viral marketing". They know that word-of-mouth and personal recommendation are among their most powerful weapons, with the distinct disadvantage that they are practically impossible to control.
Every so often a pop music recording - what we used to call an album, or even a record, and now hesitate to call a CD as that's just a bit of plastic - starts to sell slowly, without any great effort or expectations from the publisher. And then something extraordinary happens. Instead of tailing off, as they usually do, in a cooling (or if you like, a radioactive decay) curve, sales start to pick up. More people start to hear the music. They tell their friends. Blogs start to gossip about it. People mention it in reviews of other works. And presto! As if by magic, it ends up at the top of the charts.
Well, you have guessed it, Rothman's work has done just that. Manage It! was published back in 2007, and it is becoming the most talked-about book in software development.
It's well-written, easy to read, practical, full of good advice, and actually funny. It recognises that projects are not all alike (hooray!) and considers alternative approaches. Rothman covers agile as well as "serial" (waterfall) life-cycle methods, and other things in between. Not since Jerry Weinberg has software been so well served by management consultancy.
In the chapter "Recognizing and Avoiding Schedule Games", Rothman humorously names some games people play as patterns (shades of Adrenaline Junkies, then) and shows how to avoid them. They have names like "Queen of Denial" and "90% Done", and should bring a smile of recognition to every manager's face.
This is probably a book for more experienced project managers, rather than absolute beginners, who might like to try Heldman's accessible book instead. But Rothman already looks like a classic.
© Ian Alexander 2009
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