Managing the Mechanism

This book on software project management is centered on the idea that “computer software is a mechanism.”  Literally, computer software is an automatic, self-directing machine of unfathomable internal complexity, which will do everything that it does without human intervention or direction. Neither the team that built it, nor you, the project manager, can have any direct influence upon the outcome that will occur when the software is in operation, because you’re not there. Your influence is entirely indirect: the completeness of your specifications; the accuracy of the work; the quality of the testing and deployment process. This crucial point – that you are building an automaton – completely redefines what is the proper approach to software project management.