The Art of Project Management

Software process and methodology

Beck, Kent, Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (Addison Wesley, 1999) ISBN 0201616416

This short book clarifies the intention and philosophy of XP and gives some of the basics for how to make it happen. It's compelling in spirit and passion, but often reads more like a spiritual than a playbook. It explains iterations, velocity, stories, and the other key processes of XP, while simultaneously expressing their benefits. I examined many of the other extreme and agile programming books, and found they generally overlapped significantly with the coverage here. Planning Extreme Programming (also by Beck) was the only other XP text I found useful enough to generate notes from. It's more procedural than "embrace change" (although the first half does overlap heavily with it).

Brooks, Fred, The Mythical Man-Month (Addison Wesley, 1995) ISBN 0201835959

This grand classic, first published more than 20 years ago, still hits home on many major points. Brooks writes well, uses strong metaphors, and leaves you feeling like you just conversed with a man much wiser and friendlier than you are. It's perhaps the most well-known and widely respected book on managing software development projects.

Bullock, James and Gerald Weinberg, Roundtable on Project Management: A SHAPE Forum Dialog (Dorset House, 2001) ISBN 093263348X

A collection of summarized conversations from Weinberg's SHAPE discussion group. I loved this book. It captures the spirit and energy ...