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1-Page Summary of Peopleware
Overview
What is needed to make software development work? The answer is obviously great technology. However, this book argues that the most important aspect of software development is actually people and not technology.
You need to understand that people are the most important part of software development, and you’ll have to focus on teamwork and productivity. Only then can you lead your team toward success.
In this article, we’ll look at the importance of a little leeway for making mistakes on projects; how working overtime can lead to more free time later; and why gardening is a great way to foster teamwork among employees.
Big Idea #1: Many creative projects fail because managers have adopted the wrong management style.
Most creative development work is project-based. However, many projects fail despite the hard work of the people involved in them.
A lot of companies spend money on projects that end up being failures. In a study of 500 different software development projects, 15 percent were canceled or never used in the first place.
Additionally, for projects that took 25 years or more to complete, only one-fourth of them were completed.
The authors researched failed projects by studying why they were unsuccessful. They found that the majority of those projects had no technical problems at all. Rather, the reasons for failure were sociological—that is, they involved the teams working on them.
Most managers don’t focus on this aspect of project management, because they think it’s not their responsibility. To illustrate this idea, imagine you’re at a cocktail party with your team and someone asks what you do for a living. How would you respond?
If you’re a software programmer, then you’ve already got it wrong.
Managers are mostly in the communication business. They need to communicate with their teams, and that’s how they get work done.
Managers who do not understand the importance of managing their people efficiently are more likely to mismanage their employees and make them unhappy, which will lower the quality of work produced.
As a project manager, you need to focus on people. If you want to be successful in the field of software development or any other technical field, it’s important to understand that technology is not as important as people skills.
Big Idea #2: Managers often overlook employees’ individuality, and don’t leave room for necessary errors.
Most managers don’t really know what their role is in the company, and they make several mistakes because of that.
First, they don’t recognize the unique differences between workers. For example, a manager at a software company viewed his employees as interchangeable cogs and didn’t see that one of them had an unusual expense account.
The manager found that this employee was spending 50 percent more on food than other workers, but not overall. He wasn’t actually more expensive; he just spent his money differently.
However, the manager felt threatened and labeled the employee as a “food criminal” in an email to all employees.
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When we do not consider people’s differences, it leads to low morale.
Managers make two big mistakes. First, they don’t allow employees to make mistakes. Managers often see errors as serious offenses and pass that attitude on to the employees.
For example, the authors asked some software managers to try out iterative design. Most of them believed that their bosses wouldn’t be willing to do this because they would be afraid of making mistakes.
The manager would not want to reject the design because they already paid for it. Therefore, employees are less likely to try innovative designs out of fear that they might turn out badly.
