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… — Fred Brooks Copy Share
More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined. — Fred Brooks Copy Share Image
The first step toward the management of disease was replacement of demon theories and humours theories by the germ theory. That very step, the beginning of hope, in itself dashed all hopes of magical solutions. It told workers that progress would be made stepwise, at great effort, and that a persistent, unremitting care would have to be paid to a… — Fred Brooks Copy Share
An ancient adage warns, "Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three." — Fred Brooks Copy Share Image
A computer program is a message from a man to a machine. The rigidly marshaled syntax and the scrupulous definitions all exist to make… — Fred Brooks Copy Share Image
The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be… The computer resembles the magic of legend in this respect, too. If one character, one pause, of the incantation is not strictly in proper form,… — Fred Brooks Copy Share
Improving your process won't move you from good to great design. It'll move you from bad to average. — Fred Brooks Copy Share Image
We tend to blame the physical media for most of our implementation difficulties; for the media are not "ours" in the way the ideas… — Fred Brooks Copy Share Image
Product procedure...must securely protect the crown jewels, but, equally important, it must eschew building high fences around the garbage cans. — Fred Brooks Copy Share Image
