Rating: 
Summary: Could there be order in chaos?
Review: "I Sing the Body Electronic" is a success story. Fred Moody entertainingly describes the lifecycle of a product created by Microsoft. The mystifying part is how the success described in the story came to be. Moody vividly explains the socio-political inner workings of Microsoft by tailing a development team from the start of a product until its eventual completion. The team members come to life on the page, and the observations made by Moody add an intellectual quality to what would otherwise be a soap opera. The book is gripping until the very end. The dialogue and writing are easily read, and well chosen. The chronological layout of the book, while necessary, is unfettering. All together the book is well written. Fred Moody ends the book with a provocative suggestion as to how a doomed project became a success. I wont spoil it by telling you what it is, but trust me its insightful. I can't help but believe that Bill Gates traded in his families only possessions for some magic beans. Well it has certainly paid off for him, and Mr. Moody as well.
Rating:
Summary: Could there be order in chaos?
Review: "I Sing the Body Electronic" is a success story. Fred Moody entertainingly describes the lifecycle of a product created by Microsoft. The mystifying part is how the success described in the story came to be. Moody vividly explains the socio-political inner workings of Microsoft by tailing a development team from the start of a product until its eventual completion. The team members come to life on the page, and the observations made by Moody add an intellectual quality to what would otherwise be a soap opera.
The book is gripping until the very end. The dialogue and writing are easily read, and well chosen. The chronological layout of the book, while necessary, is unfettering. All together the book is well written. Fred Moody ends the book with a provocative suggestion as to how a doomed project became a success. I wont spoil it by telling you what it is, but trust me its insightful. I can't help but believe that Bill Gates traded in his families only possessions for some magic beans. Well it has certainly paid off for him, and Mr. Moody as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Microsoft gives order to software CHAOS?!
Review: After reading "Dynamics of Software Development" by Jim McCarthy (a former Microsoftie) a couple of years ago, and actually tried some approaches described in that book, I have always wondered how Microsoft development teams really go about their software development process. And this book gives a realistic account of inside Microsoft. Basically, teams in Microsoft are just as chaotic as any other software development teams I have involved in and seen. The success of Microsoft projects, this case in particular, greatly attributes to their excellent technicians - which is something many smaller companies can't afford and duplicate. As the author said in the last chapter, he thought he was witnessing a fail project; the product turned out shipable and of certain quality really was because of the excellent individual team members' skills. As far as I can tell, very little, if any, of the project's success was due to the team structure and dynamics.
However, I don't know if I should be encouraged or discouraged by that revelation. What it means to me is that: no matter how many Microsoft software development books I have read, I can hardly reproduce the same results there, unless and until, I can assemble a high-caliber team like the one described in the book, whose individual skills can save the day. All in all, the book is a very interesting read for people involved in software development. I finished it in record time. Last note: the book is a required read for my MBA project management class. It sure beats reading a dry text book - I'll give you that.
Rating: 
Summary: A GLIMPSE INSIDE...
Review: Have you ever wondered how the teams at Microsoft work? This book is an inside glimpse into how a work group there operates. It is not a comprehensive view of Microsoft' and in fact each group could be said to have its own unique dynamics, but this book will provide a brief and useful view of the process of creating and shipping a product at Microsoft. This book follows several members of a group within a now defunct section of Microsoft. They were creating a product, and the book documents each person's feelings, opinions, and unique perspectives on getting their own jobs done' and how they have to work together to accomplish the ultimate goal of creating a product. Microsoft employees, it is shown, have a great deal of personal freedom and latitude in doing their jobs, but when it comes to working together in a team, their very idiosyncratic personalities often conflict. Add to this a very strange but not surprising element of artists versus programmers versus project managers. Add yet more' regular Microsoft employees versus contract employees. Whether the friction and problems the book conveys are real or not, they are perceived by many employees, which affects the work environment. An interesting aspect of the business model and organizational chart is that the employees are only a few levels (3 or 4) away from Bill Gates (or the highest level of the company). Most people at some point in their careers are required to present their work to Gates (or equivalent level) at some point. The book depicts Gates as a very temperamental and demanding person who will look at something which is next to perfect, get angry about its flaws, and yell at the creators insisting on something much better. And then when the presentation is over and the creators leave, Gates says something about how brilliant it was, but if people think he did not like it, they will strive to make it more perfect. The book might be dated by now. Organizations change a great deal in just a few years. Microsoft was not being threatened by the Justice Department when this book was written, and although MS was a huge company then it was not as big as it is now. The book is the first to point out the effects of organizational change, and Microsoft, like most large companies, goes through organizational change frequently. Interesting book... worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: A GLIMPSE INSIDE...
Review: Have you ever wondered how the teams at Microsoft work? This book is an inside glimpse into how a work group there operates. It is not a comprehensive view of Microsoft??? and in fact each group could be said to have its own unique dynamics, but this book will provide a brief and useful view of the process of creating and shipping a product at Microsoft. This book follows several members of a group within a now defunct section of Microsoft. They were creating a product, and the book documents each person???s feelings, opinions, and unique perspectives on getting their own jobs done??? and how they have to work together to accomplish the ultimate goal of creating a product. Microsoft employees, it is shown, have a great deal of personal freedom and latitude in doing their jobs, but when it comes to working together in a team, their very idiosyncratic personalities often conflict. Add to this a very strange but not surprising element of artists versus programmers versus project managers. Add yet more??? regular Microsoft employees versus contract employees. Whether the friction and problems the book conveys are real or not, they are perceived by many employees, which affects the work environment. An interesting aspect of the business model and organizational chart is that the employees are only a few levels (3 or 4) away from Bill Gates (or the highest level of the company). Most people at some point in their careers are required to present their work to Gates (or equivalent level) at some point. The book depicts Gates as a very temperamental and demanding person who will look at something which is next to perfect, get angry about its flaws, and yell at the creators insisting on something much better. And then when the presentation is over and the creators leave, Gates says something about how brilliant it was, but if people think he did not like it, they will strive to make it more perfect. The book might be dated by now. Organizations change a great deal in just a few years. Microsoft was not being threatened by the Justice Department when this book was written, and although MS was a huge company then it was not as big as it is now. The book is the first to point out the effects of organizational change, and Microsoft, like most large companies, goes through organizational change frequently. Interesting book... worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for my class on product development
Review: In the past I always assigned "Soul of a New Machine" to show my students what it's really like to work in a small project team with unrealistic deadlines (i.e. normal high tech). But the technology there is too out of date - 4.77Mhz, single boards for single functions, etc. So I have shifted to "I Sing," with generally good results. The book is 2x the length I would like so I assign selected chapters, but it reads easily enough that most students read the whole thing. They are always amazed by the level of chaos and conflict; in fact it makes them feel better about their own team design projects. The sequence of events is not easy to follow, there are too many characters, etc. so I provide some supplemental information on my web page. This is the best book I know of for a class on high tech development culture. There are plenty of case studies of the auto industry, but most of them are puff pieces and they are all about giant projects. Ditto for books about Boeing. The e-commerce stories are polluted by money and novelty issues (though I keep hoping to find one.)
Rating:
Summary: This book captures the essence of design organizations.
Review: It is remarkable that Fred Moody was able to gain the confidence of Microsoft's Explorapedia design and develpment team to the extent that he could chronical their process with all its warts. For anyone who has not had experience with the design and development process this book provides insignts that should both amuse and inform. For those who have been involved with the design and development process but have not taken the time to refelect on their own activities, this book may prompt them to ask the question, "What are we doing to ourselves and why do we do it?"
Rating:
Summary: The reality of software development
Review: So many of the books about software development I have read are about an organized, heroic march from conception to delivery. This book is a much more realistic depiction of the chaos and mess that most people actually live with in real world software development. Moody did a good job of just telling the story and not judging the messiness or trying to clean it up to create the typical late night, pizza boxes and Jolt Cola heroic story. He does a good job of discussing the complex human issues surrounding the project and their importance relative to the actually technical issues. Creating the technology turns out to be relatively simple compared to the challenge of getting a group of people from very diverse backgrounds to function effectively as a team. This challenge is particularly strong in consumer technology products because the range of backgrounds required is so broad. The communications and collaboration skills needed to allow artist and programmers to work together are insightfully revealed in this book
Rating:
Summary: SOftware Development and People
Review: THe best book! Makes you feel comfortable if you are new working in a software development job. And how software development basically involves dealing with different kinds of people. ANd all the extremes in personality of the programmer. It also describes the rare and challenging lifestyle that the programmer pursues and chooses...
Rating:
Summary: Rare first-hand account of a doomed software product
Review: The real value in this book is the great work that Fred did to get inside the development team, and then observe. I've worked at R&D in Microsoft for long enough to know that he probably is telling it largely as it happened. I didn't work on this project but I got pretty damned close. Yep, it sometimes is that chaotic. It's interesting to see in the book how Fred doubts himself, and says things like "maybe I'm going crazy, but it seems like these people just had another useful offsite, but they all think it went great." Fred, you ain't crazy. The only drawback of this book is that in places Fred tries to read into situations a bit too much. He steps a little too far out of the observer role a few times, which brings the quality down a bit. Also I think he missed a great opportunity to describe the turn-around (well at least they shipped something) at the end. Maybe he got kicked out around then? The book has lots of direct quotes and first hand accounts of what went on. Want to see the dark side of things going wrong at Microsoft?? Read this book.
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