Matthew Hutchinson

Heard of PRojects IN Controlled Environments aka. Prince ? If you’re in the UK you’ve probably seen it, asked for on job descriptions, listed in expense reports and generally talked up among those in the project management industry. Outside of Europe Prince2 holds little clout. Most people have never heard of it, (including Mr. Joel on Software)

Prince2 is essentially a project management framework, that claims it can be applied to (or modified to fit) any project. It is great theory – but that’s pretty much all it is. In reality it’s rarely the right methodology to choose for a software project.

The problem is some large (often bureaucratic) companies place a strong emphasis on having a Prince2 qualification, even in the software industry. Year on year, it seems to make a regular appearance on training expense reports.

To make things worse, whatever good intentions Prince2 had to begin with, have faded away. What’s left now is a money making training industry (with loyal repeat customers). Having to re-take the same training and sit the exam every year or so, just to keep the accreditation. Speaking to those who have taken the course, it doesn’t seem to offer anything more than ‘how to pass the exam’ – and is scant on the underlying principles of project management using the framework (including how you might want to tailor it).

Simply put, Prince2 is too rigid to fit with the complexity involved in managing software projects, especially those with small teams. The amount of work you would have to do, moulding Prince2 into a more agile solution, would offset any benefit in using the framework.

If you’re still not convinced, I’d suggest have a good read through ‘Why Software Projects Fail’ , ‘Getting Real’ and ‘The Agile Manifesto’

Heads up, I know which one I prefer in the Agile Manifesto vs. Prince2 debate.

Following on from Carisenda’s ‘book reading shame’, here is a list of what I got through in 2006. In 2005 I finished every Stephen Ambrose book he’d published and generally overdosed on WWII factual history a bit too much. Men of Valour is worth a read if you’re interested in getting introduced to that type of thing.

Last year I read into the history of programming, hackers and Apple a bit—and while visiting Japan I was introduced to Haruki Murakami, without a doubt the best fictional work I have read in years. His books remind me of stories you’d expect from a Studio Ghibli production.

(I know some people can read this many books in a couple of months, I tell myself, reading slowly, I’m getting more out of them …)

• Programming Ruby – The Pickaxe, worth its weight in gold
• Out of the Inner Circle: A Hacker’s Guide to Computer Security – describes some very old hacking techniques used in the early days of the internet
• Hackers – a great book documenting the history of hacking and the advances in computing from MIT mainframes to modern day (well, circa 1989) home computers. Including some interesting true stories on Wozniak, Gates and the rise and fall of Seirra games
• Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage – astronomer Clifford Stoll at Berkeley, tracks a hacker from western Europe for several months.
• Getting Real – 37 Signals, on building simple, focused software that does just what you need and nothing you don’t.
• iWoz – How Apple came to be, Wozniak’s story.
• The Victors – Stephen Ambrose
• Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability – short and to the point, essential reading
• Why Software Projects Fail – an excellent read for anyone trying to argue the benefits of agile methods
• No Silver Bullet – Brooks (PDF)
• The Wind Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
• Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami

Anyone else got any books to recommend ?

—update You can also take a look at what feeds I subscribe to and read on a semi-daily basis.

On my travels a few months ago I picked up iWoz at the airport and have only now got around to finishing it. Its a great story told by Wozniak that sets straight some of the ill-reported news that has become history over the years.

From his days of minimising logic circuits when he was a kid, to building the Apple II and watching the company’s success sky-rocket – its worth a read if your interested in how Apple got started or what it takes to execute a wild idea. The book has also just launched its own website – which links right through to Steve’s Linked In profile – not a bad connection to have.

update – there is also this video interview with Guy Kawasaki interviewing Steve.

I’d be interested (maybe just plain nosey) to flick through other people’s subscribed feeds, and see what you’re reading. Export your subscribed feeds as OPML, upload and post a comment with a link.

Here is my RSS OPML file, – I check most all of these feeds on a daily basis. You can import this into any feedreader for reading at your leisure.

OPML ? is an XML format for outlines. Originally developed as a native file format for an outliner application, it has since been adopted for other uses, the most common being to exchange lists of RSS feeds between RSS aggregators.

Its probably already been done, but perhaps there’s scope here for an OPML delicious type – ‘share my feeds’ web app. Quick – to the bat mobile !

Edit: Its Been Done, already … In fact, heres mine – Note to self, always Google before posting …

Im half way through Steven Levy’s Hackers, book (published in 1984) – A quote from Steve Wozniak caught my eye. In finally telling Jobs, he would quit his job at HP and work for Apple full-time;

Steven Levy

But even as he agreed to quit HP and work with Jobs full-time, he told himself that what he was doing was no longer pure hacking. The truth was that starting a company had nothing to do with hacking or creative design. It was about making money. It was ‘Stepping over the boundary’ as Wozniak later put it.

Its a very enjoyable read if your interested in where things began. Im heading to Spain next week for a short break, and should get a run at finishing this book.

(buy the book 2nd hand at Amazon.co.uk)