The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management

by Tom DeMarco

Tom has been a prolific writer and consultant in the software engineering field since the 1960s, and many of today's generation of programmers and systems analysts grew up on his Structured Analysis and System Specification and Controlling Software Projects: Management, Measurement, and Estimation.

For much of the past dozen years, though, Tom has focused on management issues, personnel issues, and sociological aspects of software development. In The Deadline, he brings much of this wisdom — both technical issues, as well as "peopleware" issues and management issues — together in a parable about a massive development project that takes place in a mythical country somewhere in eastern Europe (no, don't worry, this isn't a political commentary about Bosnia or Kosovo or any of the other trouble zones we've been hearing about). All of Tom's books are written in simple but lucid English, with a dash of humor, but I know that busy software professionals are still likely to hesitate before picking up a technical book — perhaps it reminds them too much of college, and the need to memorize dry, irrelevant facts.  But putting the same material into a novel form should eliminate any hesitation about being bored by dull material. Even if the book didn't have any technical content, it would still be a great novel. There are lots of interesting characters, some of whom may remind you of folks in the real world ... a character known as the "Great Yourdini" is introduced at the end of the story, for example, and I'm still trying to figure out who Tom based the character on. Anyway, I guarantee that it's a book that you'll enjoy from beginning to end — and also one from which you'll learn a great deal!