Mythical Man-Month, The: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition

Chapter 14. Hatching a Catastrophe

None love the bearer of bad news.—SOPHOCLES

How does a project get to be a year late?. . . . One day at a time.

When one hears of disastrous schedule slippage in a project, he imagines that a series of major calamities must have befallen it. Usually, however, the disaster is due to termites, not tornadoes; and the schedule has slipped imperceptibly but inexorably. Indeed, major calamities are easier to handle; one responds with major force, radical reorganization, the invention of new approaches. The whole team rises to the occasion.

But the day-by-day slippage is harder to recognize, harder to prevent, ...