Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies

Tom DeMarco und Timothy Lister sind Partner der Atlantic Systems Guild, einer Beratergruppe, die sich auf die komplexen Prozesse der Systementwicklung spezialisiert hat, mit besonderem Augenmerk auf die menschliche Dimension. Seit den 70er-Jahren haben sie zusammen zu Themen wie Management, Aufwandsschätzungen, Produktivität und Organisationkultur unterrichtet, Bücher verfasst und international beraten.

The 86 Patterns

1 Adrenaline Junkies
2 Rattle Yer Dags
3 Dead Fish
4 Happy Clappy Meetings
5 Nanny
6 Referred Pain
7 Mañana
8 Eye Contact
9 Management By Mood Ring
10 True Believer
11 Lease Your Soul
12 System Development Lemming Cycle
13 No Bench
14 Face Time
15 I Gave You a Chisel. Why Aren't You Michelangelo?
16 Dashboards
17 Endless Huddle
18 Young Pups and Old Dogs
19 Film Critics
20 One Throat to Choke
Interlude: Project-Speak
21 Soviet Style
22 Natural Authority
23 The Too-Quiet Office
24 The White Line
25 Silence Gives Consent
26 Straw Man
27 Counterfeit Urgency
28 Time Removes Cards from Your Hand
29 Lewis & Clark
30 Short Pencil
31 Rhythm
32 The Overtime Predictor
33 Poker Night
34 False Quality Gates
35 Testing Before Testing
36 Cider House Rules
37 Talk Then Write
38 Project Sluts
39 Atlas
40 Everyone Wears Clothes for a Reason
41 Peer Preview
42 Snorkeling and Scuba Diving
43 It's Always the Goddamned Interfaces
44 The Blue Zone
45 News Improvement
46 Telling the Truth Slowly
47 Practicing Endgame
48 The Music Makers
49 Journalists
50 The Empty Chair
51 My Cousin Vinny
52 Feature Soup
53 Data Qualty
54 Ben
55 Miss Manners
56 Undivided Attention
57 "There's No Crying in Baseball!"
58 Cool Hand Luke
59 Shipping On-Time, Every Time
60 Food++
61 Orphaned Deliverables
62 Hidden Beauty
63 I Don't Know
64 Children of Lake Wobegon
65 Co-Education
66 Seelenverwandtschaft
67 Phillips Head
68 Predicting Innovation
69 Marilyn Munster
Interlude: The Cutting Room Floor
70 Brownie in Motion
71 Loud and Clear
72 Safety Valve
73 Babel
74 Surprise!
75 Fridge Door
76 The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow
77 Piling On
78 Seasons for Change
79 Paper Mill
80 Offshore Follies
81 War Rooms
82 What Smell?
83 Lessons Unlearned
84 Sanctity of the Half-Baked Idea
85 Leakage
86 Template Zombies

". . . Reading the book felt like attending a good conference. It includes a lot of interesting material, some confirming what you already know, some of which areless relevant for you, but some that are very useful. The net result is some discoveries that help think about your work, discuss it, and improve it." —Ben Linders, IEEE Software

"I love this book. It is as though the authors were spying on my office for the past 20 years. . . . Flip through this book. Find a pattern -- either good or bad -- that fits your current project, bring the book to work and show people that your workplace is not unique, that others have done the same before, and what the result will probably be if you don't change." —Dwayne Phillips, author of Working Up to Project Management

"People have always tried to understand themselves and each other. Our survival has depended on such understanding, as has the quality of that survival, from bare subsistence to deeply fulfilling livelihood. What people do individually, interpersonally, and within their institutional matrices, forms distinct frameworks of attitude and behavior. Perceiving the dynamics of these complexes (let's call them) confers both insight and power. Three attempts at such understanding leap to mind. The Chinese had the I Ching, or Book of Changes. Architects have had A Pattern Language. And medical psychology has had its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Brilliantly blending elements of all three (not least from that last one), Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies maps the patterns people create and follow—to their detriment and advantage—in the projects they engage within organizational contexts. Sharp, funny and dead-on-target, the book deserves a wide reading." —Christopher Locke, coauthor of The Cluetrain Manifesto

"This is an absolutely must-read book for everyone running an IT organization. Actually, the lessons in this wonderful book are applicable to anyone running any kind of project-based organization—just about every organization. The metaphors are funny in that kind of tragic-funny you've been there kind of way. You will recognize the common pathologies of projects everywhere. With a dose of courage and this book in hand, you will be able to create a healthy project environment where people can thrive and still deliver consistent results." —Lynne Ellyn, Sr. Vice President and CIO, DTE Energy

"Written with a combined sense of humor and deep insight. The book clearly conveys why projects fail and what can be done about it. It is all doable practical advice delivered in a very friendly and acceptable way." —Warren McFarlan, Professor, Harvard Business School

"The 86 project patterns are grimly familiar to anyone who has worked in project-related organizations. Fortunately, some of the patterns are good ones, and should be encouraged. Sadly, though, many of the others are not only depressingly familiar, but astonishingly destructive to productivity, quality, and the morale of the project team." —Ed Yourdon, author of Death March

"Who else but these particular authors could mine 150 years of software team experience to capture memorable names for oft-encountered situations? I suspect you will start using these phrases in your work—I already have." —Alistair Cockburn, author of Agile Software Development

"A remarkably compelling book that captures with vignette, anecdote and history, both the anthropology and sociology of software project dysfunction. There is the knowing and weary but not-yet-cynical voice of experience that will make project leaders, managers and participants flinch and wince with recognition."—Michael Schrage, MIT Media Lab

"Another masterpiece from the folks who brought you Peopleware. Anyone who has survived a software project or two will surely recognize many of these patterns and will be able to learn from most of them. Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies is a real joy." —Joel Spolsky, author of Joel on Software

"Brilliantly insightful. At one moment you'll think 'Darn, I do that . . . we're toast' followed quickly by the reassurance of 'I'm not the only one. There's hope!'" —Howard Look, VP, Software, Pixar Animation Studios