Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies
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Product Description
Joel Spolsky, author of Joel on Software
"Another masterpiece from the folks who brought you Peopleware. Anyone who has survived a software project or two will surely recognize many of these patterns and will be able to learn from most of them. Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies is a real joy."
Alistair Cockburn, author of Agile Software Development
"Who else but these particular authors could mine 150 years of software team experience to capture memorable names for oft-encountered situations? I suspect you will start using these phrases in your work--I already have."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Predigested experience,
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This review is from: Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies:Understanding Patterns of Project Behaviour: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior (Paperback)
Predigested experience appears to be what this book attempts to offer. A wealth of management and software development observations are offered up, presumably to enable practitioners to recognize them when they encounter them in their own situations, as opposed to discovering everything for the first time for themselves.
I've no quarrel with any of the observations they make, having seen many at first hand myself. The book is easy to read, I polished it off in about half a day. If you search on google for the usefully-rare phrase of "template zombie" you may be able to find a sample from the book which describes the patterns of "dead fish" and "film critic". That sample will probably give you a far better idea of whether the book is for you or not, than this review can. Personally, I enjoyed the book - and found it somewhat interesting and relevant. However, it does draw from a lot of background knowledge which it doesn't attempt to explain or provide references for, suggesting it is aimed at practicing managers rather than academics? As it is, I suspect it will be more useful to someone who has SOME kind of software project knowledge already, either by working on one ( in any capacity ) or on some kind of software/management course, so as not to be 'thrown off' by offhand references to methodologies like SCRUM. For what it's worth, altavista/babelfish translates "Seelenverwandtschaft" as "soul relationship". Overall impression - interesting and worthwhile, although I would probably have been happier with a full references/bibliography list at the end, as well as a glossary. And I'm still trying to figure out where the New Zealand connection comes from - doesn't seem to appear in any of the short biographies of the authors. Four stars out of five.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining to read, but sometimes shallow and unconvincing,
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This review is from: Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies:Understanding Patterns of Project Behaviour: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior (Paperback)
This book presents 86 so-called patterns of behaviour in organisations that the authors have identified during their work as software consultants.
The patterns themselves are not explicitly structured (e.g., through a common set of headings), instead they are rather presented as generalised anecdotes about things that can happen on a software project. The patterns are not related to another in specific ways, instead each is mainly presented in isolation. The authors don't make claims that their observations were typical. The length of a pattern description can range from 7 lines of text (pattern 23) to a few pages. I found the book entertaining to read. What I found positive about this book: 1. The book provides some evidence for the messy reality of many software projects and organisations. This is an aspect that is often neglected in the literature. 2. The authors don't praise their own work and their writing style is unassuming and not patronising (unlike that of some other consultants). 3. The material covers a large spectrum of situations that can occur. 4. The anecdotes are amusing and generally sound realistic. What I found negative about this book: 1. The so-called patterns are just unstructured narrative, while I expected a more structured and systematic approach. To me much of the text sounds rather vague. 2. There is usually no indication how often a 'pattern' was observed or the context of observations. 3. The authors only present their own view of events, which may be biased, as this group of expensive, external consultants will naturally have a very special point of view. They often present one single explanation as 'the right one' and fail to reflect on their own bias. 4. They provide little theoretical background to make sense of their observations. I found their analysis rather shallow, lacking for example references to the vast literature on organisational behaviour and psychology. 5. There is little practical advice on how to deal with the situations described by the patterns. All in all I think that this is a well-written, interesting and above all necessary book. It's good that it was written at all, and it's a valuable attempt to provide some insight into the reality of software projects. However, I found many of the interpretations, explanations and suggestions offered in this book rather shallow and unconvincing.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic book,
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This review is from: Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies:Understanding Patterns of Project Behaviour: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior (Paperback)
This book is very clear and useful. I liked it very much. Sometimes need a deep knowledge of english language.
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