Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior - a review



I've been reading "Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies" by the whole Atlantic Systems Guild crew, Tom DeMarco, Peter Hruschka, Tim Lister, Steve McMenamin, James Robertson, and Suzanne Robertson. You'll recognize Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister as the authors of Peopleware.

This is an easy and enjoyable read where you can see different patterns (and anti-patterns) for people, teams and organizations. Anyone at any level of the organization that is interested in trying to understand how people and teams work would enjoy this book.

Among the great quotes they cite in the book is this one.

“The correct amount of anarchy on a project is not zero.” —Mike Mushet

You'll laugh when you see some of the bad behaviors "others" engage in and cry when you see yourself. The book is a few years old, but it is something I expect will stay on my bookshelf for a very long time.

No comments: