The design of design Essays from a computer scientist

Experience is one of Brooks's greatest virtues. Brooks (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) has been exposed to a wide variety of design projects over the years and has developed a tremendous amount of insight, which he conveys in this essay collection. This work is a follow-up to The Mythical Man-Month (CH, May'96, 33-5142), a quite popular tome within the computer science community, but it stands up well on its own and will interest a wider audience. Brooks frequently skips back and forth between examples from his career at IBM to those based on designing a corporate beach house. By utilizing these two differing examples, he shows that many concepts are universal to all design projects; readers seeking more detail on computer science projects may be disappointed. The text begins with a discussion of how design toward the rational model as often captured in the waterfall process is not feasible to many projects, and then discusses the alternative spiral model. Next, the book addresses design and collaboration. One of the most insightful but least technical sections follows; it focuses on aspects such as empiricism versus rationalism, qualities of design, the benefits of constraints, and more. Includes numerous case studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through professionals/practitioners interested in design. R. S. Stansbury Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University