This book is the 2nd book that any software manager should read (The Mythical Man Month being the first), in my humble opinion. Ok, not just in my opinion, but in Fred Brooks’ as well. He wrote the Mythical Man Month and has said that Peopleware deserves every bit as much credit as his book.
Its brilliance is also highlighted by the fact that the failings it addresses are so commonly found. In my experience, the most common failings of management are usually explained by a lack of understanding the human aspect of employees. This manifests itself in a lot of ways, everything from a poorly laid out workspace that doesn’t allow employees to concentrate to how the best managers protect their employees from the typical corporate politics while the worst ones don’t. And it’s not just their opinions. Everything is backed up by studies and metrics used to analyze and separate the good from the bad. And it’s for more than just developer-type organizations, as the real focus is on how to manage those that need to be creative for their occupation. So if you’re running or plan to be running an organization focused on creativity (e.g. software development, consulting, writers, artists, etc), then is absolutely required reading, and now rather than later.
The goal of any organization should be productivity. I know, I know…this seems like a no brainer, but when looking at the facts we have organizations that focus on short term gains and constantly do things that can be proven to hurt productivity. And while we have smart things like Agile trying to approach the productivity problem and what can make it better, these measures don’t come close to addressing how to optimize the work environment. This is what Peopleware is all about. The book is extremely approachable, in that every chapter is relatively short (less than 10 pages on average) and they each focus on a specific topic. Here are some examples:
The first 6 chapters & 34 total pages are devoted to the differences between trying to manage a manufacturing focused job versus how to manage creative types. It discusses the truth behind Parkinson’s Law (“The amount of work will expand to fill the time allotted to it”), the overlap between ridiculous productivity gains claims and medicinal scams, and a host of other interesting topics.
The next 7 chapters and roughly 60 pages focus on the office environment, which are some of the most straightforward and easy to make changes that exist for companies today. Then we have 4 chapters for a total of 29 pages focused on hiring the right people, what to do with them once they get there, and how to avoid the high hidden costs of turnover. You’ll learn about Horatio Hornblower, how hiring a juggler isn’t very different from hiring a developer, and how to build a self-healing system. It is absolute gold in less than 30 pages, with at least one new idea every other page.
The book finishes with sections on how to increase productivity and how to make work fun, which is one of the keys to increasing productivity and cutting back on turnover. This really is one for the ages.