Peopleware Papers: Notes on the Human Side of Software, The

Part I. Group Development

Introduction

Michelangelo, that paradigm of the lone genius, did not work alone. The Sistine Chapel was not the lonely labor of an isolated artist, but a group effort overseen and coordinated by Michelangelo. His genius, it turns out, was not for art alone, but the art of managing a team. He called his artists and artisans by their first names or nicknames. He encouraged initiative, cooperation, and pride in workmanship. He would have been at home in a meeting on software quality management.

Software development is group development. Whether it's a matter of art or engineering, most software comes out of a collective enterprise in which a group of developers work together or at odds on a common system. How the group carries ...