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Fred Brooks Biography

Frederick Phillips "Fred" Brooks Jr. (born April 19, 1931) is an American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing the development of IBM's System/360 family of computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month. Brooks has received many awards, including the National Medal of Technology in 1985 and the Turing Award in 1999.

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Fred Brooks Quotes

The programmer's primary weapon in the never-ending battle against slow system is to change the intramodular structure. Our first response should be to reorganize the modules' data structures.

Against, Battle, Data, Weapons

Job Control Language is the worst programming language ever designed anywhere by anybody for any purpose.

Designed, Jobs, Language, Programming, Purpose

Mediocre design provably wastes the world's resources, corrupts the environment, affects international competitiveness. Design is important.

Design, Environment, Important, Resources, World

Nine people can't make a baby in a month.

Baby, Make, Month, Nine, People

Software work is the most complex that humanity has ever undertaken.

Complex, Complexes, Humanity, Software, Undertaken

Improving your process won't move you from good to great design. It'll move you from bad to average.

Average, Design, Good, Moving, Process

Consensus processes starve innovative design by eating the resource.

Design, Eating, Innovative, Process, Resource

The management question, therefore, is not whether to build a pilot system and throw it away. You will do that. Hence plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.

Anyhow, Management, Pilot, Pilots, Plans, Question

The essence of a software entity is a construct of interlocking concepts: [. . . ] I believe the hard part of building software to be the specification, design, and testing of this conceptual construct, not the labor of representing it and testing the fidelity of the representation.

Believe, Design, Essence, Labor, Software, Testing

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later

Adding, Computer, Programming, Project, Projects, Software

Plan to throw one (implementation) away; you will, anyhow.

Anyhow, Plan, Plans, Programming, Software, Throw

The Waterfall Model is wrong and harmful; we must outgrow it.

Harmful, Model, Models, Waterfall, Waterfalls, Wrong

Predictability and great design are not friends.

Design, Friends, Great Design, Not Friends, Predictability

One can expect the human race to continue attempting systems just within or just beyond our reach; and software systems are perhaps the most intricate and complex of man's handiworks. The management of this complex craft will demand our best use of new languages and systems, our best adaptation of proven engineering management methods, liberal doses of common sense, and a God-given humility to recognize our fallibility and limitations.

Humility, Men, Race, Attempting, Fallibility, Demand

All programmers are optimists. Perhaps this modern sorcery especially attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy godmothers. Perhaps the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away all but those who habitually focus on the end goal. Perhaps it is merely that computers are young, programmers are younger, and the young are always optimists.

Attracts, Believe, Frustration, Frustrations, Goal, Habitually

Originality is no excuse for ignorance.

Excuse, Ignorance, No Excuses, Originality

Show me your flowcharts and conceal your tables, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your tables, and I won't usually need your flowcharts; they'll be obvious.

Flowcharts, Mystified, Needs, Obvious, Tables

Product procedure. . . must securely protect the crown jewels, but, equally important, it must eschew building high fences around the garbage cans.

Crown, Equally, Garbage Cans, Important, Jewels, Product

We tend to blame the physical media for most of our implementation difficulties; for the media are not "ours" in the way the ideas are, and our pride colors our judgement.

Color, Ideas, Media, Pride, Tend

The complexity of software is an essential property, not an accidental one. Hence, descriptions of a software entity that abstract away its complexity often abstracts away its essence.

Abstract, Away, Descriptions, Entity, Essence, Essentials

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