Dynamics of Software Development by JimMcCarthy, Denis Gilbert ISBN 1556158238
from amazon ...
The author, Jimmc@Teamworx.com , December 6, 1996 -- My book is only the beginning.... I have left Microsoft Corporation, and I have founded a company comprised primarily of Microsoft veterans. If you like the ideas presented within my book, you need to see what my team is doing know; We have learned much since this books publishing. We offer a week long retreat called the Software Development BootCamp?, which contains everything that we have learned about teams, software, and life.
I quite enjoyed the book, but McCarthy's ideas grated on me somewhat. I'm not a StarvingArtist? trying to convey my philosophy through my code. I'm JustaProgrammer and proud of it. This isn't to say I don't want to find as many ways to improve myself in that capacity.
McCarthy is selling something he calls OS/T (OperatingSystemForTeams?). It seems to me like good old california GroupTherapy?.
e.g. "8. OS/T is a suite of protocols for people to load and run when they work together. Or even when they simply are together.
9. It is irrational to combine into teams without each team member revealing themselves and their riches which lay within. A team must above all know everything it knows and be aware of what it doesn't know. A team must be cognizant of all it can do. Access to more knowledge and other information in order to channel it more broadly through the medium of computer software gets to the very purpose of forming teams."
-- AlanFrancis
Now see http://www.mccarthy-tech.com/ McCarthy Technologies ("software for your mind", 5-day team bootcamp "that will lead any group to a state of shared vision") -- BobStein
I appreciate MicroSoft's policy of psychologically abusing their programmers, and then publishing the results of their evil experiments. -- PCP
Please be specific. Where are you seeing evidence of psychological abuse.
I think he means MindWashing? or MindNumbing?. Abuse at Microsoft only exists in the form of lack of UnitTests as we know them, and then hiring 6 testers for each developer to invent and perform unit tests by hand, 10 hours a day, brain naked.
Having a lot of soda and coffee can't be considered abuse unless cafeinne is considered illegal.