Reading "Death March"

I just picked up a copy of Ed Yourdan's Death March. Haven't had a chance to read it yet (being too busy at work), but am hoping to read it during the down time when baby Dave arrives. I definitely agree with the conclusion that software death marches are becoming the norm rather than the exception, having survived them at several different companies. I'll add additional entries as I read the book.

Addicted to LinkedIn

LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com) is one of several professional networking sites out there these days. I originally found out about it from a former VP of Engineering at CCPU, and have been growing my network of connections ever since. In addition to adding connections to friends and peers I was already in touch with it has enabled me to reconnect with other former classmates, coworkers, etc.. It has even led to a number of (unsolicited) job/career opportunities from recruiters...thinking back to the telecom nuclear winter of 2003, it would be interesting to see how technology like this might have altered the networking/job search that so many folks dealt with back then (not that I have any interest in reliving that!)

They recently added a new "Questions and Answers" feature that has been interesting to watch and participate in. One of the recent questions had to do with being a LinkedIn adict . For whatever reason I'd have to agree, and it has become another site I check daily along with public email, Illini sports updates, etc.

Can nine people have a baby in one month?

As we're expecting baby Dave's arrival any time now, it's very apparent to me that they can't.

The "Mythical Man Month" is probably the best software development reference discussing the wisdom (or lack thereof) in doing this, yet it is still commonplace in a lot of large-scale software development groups and I've seen it a number of times spanning several industries.