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There is a misconception in our field that after a certain age and experience you have to move to the next level of management.

I'm a software developer and like what I do and hope to do it as much as possible. I even quit one job because I was moving away from development and instead performing management duties. But I am also conscious that this might not be always possible, so I am not limiting my knowledge and I try to read PM books as much as time allows me to.

As a developer though, the most important knowledge I gained was by making mistakes and then learn from them. Books are excellent but emphasize on how to do things... well, "by the book" which most of the time means an ideal situation with just a handful of variables thrown in the mix.

I am interested in books that also presents the wrong way of doing it and what results from that, situations in which the bad decision was made. I think true stories beat pure theory.

So, is there a book or something with some good information about the don'ts of IT Project Management?

Thank you!

EDIT: received a lot of good answers but can only accept one, so I'm going for the answer that people liked and voted the most (then try to read all of them if possible). Thanks again!

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8 Answers

up vote 18 down vote accepted

"Mythical Man Month" is a classic of IT Project Management, written by someone with true experience, Fred Brooks. He shares what he learned from his experience working on the IBM System 360.

You may be familiar with "Brook's Law": "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later."

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+1 Excellent choice. – Walter Nov 27 '10 at 23:07
Am I the only one who thinks that outside the first couple of chapters (which cover Brooks law), that this book has dated relatively badly? – Jon Hopkins Nov 29 '10 at 9:11
@Jon: The book has some great insights and timeless truths, and a lot of increasingly irrelevant cruft. There are whole chapters that are completely useless now, and one really bad call (that information hiding is bad). Still, until I see more recognition of the things Brooks got right, I'm not going to stop recommending the book. – David Thornley Nov 29 '10 at 20:21
@David - I agree that it's worth it for the first couple of chapters alone. I was just curious as to whether I'd missed the point with much of the rest or whether others thought the same. – Jon Hopkins Nov 29 '10 at 20:35
up vote 16 down vote

Another great book of what not to do is Peopleware, which constantly notes that a developers must have fewer distractions. For example, private offices with doors, no unnecessary meetings, not ringing telephones, etc.

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+100 if I could. – quickly_now Nov 28 '10 at 2:45
@quickly_now: Let me help you with that. +1 – Jonathan Hobbs Nov 28 '10 at 11:02
up vote 8 down vote

Death March, by Edward Yourdon

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2  
+1 but please buy the second edition – user2567 Nov 28 '10 at 10:13
up vote 2 down vote

Not specific to project management, but in "Dreaming in Code" by Scott Rosenberg they made about every mistake possible for no apparent reason (time, money, requirements, expertise, experience).

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up vote 1 down vote

Also "The Deadline" by Tom DeMarco. Very readable novel about project management.

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up vote 1 down vote

Rapid Development by Steve McConnell.

The author of Code Complete brings you his take on Project Management. Nothing revolutionary but lots of common sense and best practice in the same very readable style.

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up vote 0 down vote

"The Universal Elixir, and Other Computing Projects Which Failed", by Robert Glass.

The stories are dated, but the lessons are timeless.

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up vote 0 down vote

Not a book, but I highly recommend reading Rands in Repose. It's a very good look at what goes through a typical project manager's head.

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