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Design of Design, The: Essays from a Computer Scientist
- By Frederick P. Brooks
- Published Mar 22, 2010 by Addison-Wesley Professional.
- Copyright 2010
- Dimensions: 6-1/8 X 9-3/16
- Pages: 448
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-201-36298-8
- ISBN-13: 978-0-201-36298-5
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Product Author Bios
Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., is Kenan Professor of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology, for his work on IBM’s Operating System/360, and the A. M. Turing Award, for his “landmark contributions to computer architecture, operating systems, and software engineering.” He is the author of the best-selling book The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition (Addison-Wesley, 1995).
Video
Making Sense of Design
Effective design is at the heart of everything from software development to engineering to architecture. But what do we really know about the design process? What leads to effective, elegant designs? The Design of Design addresses these questions.
These new essays by Fred Brooks contain extraordinary insights for designers in every discipline. Brooks pinpoints constants inherent in all design projects and uncovers processes and patterns likely to lead to excellence. Drawing on conversations with dozens of exceptional designers, as well as his own experiences in several design domains, Brooks observes that bold design decisions lead to better outcomes.
The author tracks the evolution of the design process, treats collaborative and distributed design, and illuminates what makes a truly great designer. He examines the nuts and bolts of design processes, including budget constraints of many kinds, aesthetics, design empiricism, and tools, and grounds this discussion in his own real-world examples—case studies ranging from home construction to IBM’s Operating System/360. Throughout, Brooks reveals keys to success that every designer, design project manager, and design researcher should know.
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Author's Site
Please visit the author's web site at www.cs.unc.edu/~brooks/DesignofDesign.
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63 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Well Designed!, By
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This review is from: The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist (Paperback)
Brook's new book is a worthy successor to the classic Mythical Man-Month. It starts by discussion of the well known waterfall model of design and why this model remains seductive to this day. It then shows its flaws, pragmatic problems with design in the real world and alternative models. Many readers may be familiar with these issues (as I was ) but Brooks digs into a lot of history that you may not know about.The next sections talk about design as a collaborative process , different perspectives for thinking about design, visions for designing houses, the role of individual design talent (process can't replace greatness!), and how great designers can be nurtured. This part of the book is superb. The last section is a series of case studies including buildings, a System/360 (naturally), computer architecture, and the design of a joint research facility. This is the one area where the book could have been improved and the reason I did not give it 5 stars... Read more
39 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Essential reading for 21st century thinkers and doers, By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist (Paperback)
In 1989 I started a new kind of software company, and considering that I had no financial, business, nor management experience, things went fairly well. Indeed, we doubled revenue every year for the first five years and grew from 3 people to more than 60. Somewhere along the line we hit our first real management crisis, and I was given the assignment to read The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition) as a first step in understanding why our scheduling and deliverables process had become so protracted and precarious.It was an eye opener, and it gave me my first real understanding of the fundamental limits of the industrial model. (Michael Pollan's... Read more
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful
An important book on the foundations of IT design, By
This review is from: The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist (Paperback)
There are few people who can be described as part of the foundation of modern business computing technology and IT management. Fred Brooks is one of them. His book "The Mythical Man Month" (MMM) is one of the seminal works on IT management. Now he follows that book up with "The Design of Design." Like MMM this book is a collection of essays and thoughts from someone who has been thinking and working on the deep systems behind information technology. This book is thought provoking, informative and makes a contribution to our understanding of IT and the nature of design.A word of caution however, this book, like MMM is not for the casual reader. People who are looking for a book similar to the other `sliver bullet' books about tech will be sorely disappointed because there is no silver bullet. Brooks told us that in the MMM. However, serious students of the evolution of design and IT management however will find much in this book to debate, disagree and... Read more |
Online Sample Chapter
The Design of Design: Exemplars in Design
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Part I: Models of Designing 1
Chapter 1: The Design Question 3
Chapter 2: How Engineers Think of Design–The Rational Model 13
Chapter 3: What’s Wrong with This Model? 21
Chapter 4: Requirements, Sin, and Contracts 39
Chapter 5: What Are Better Design Process Models? 51
Part II: Collaboration and Telecollaboration 61
Chapter 6: Collaboration in Design 63
Chapter 7: Telecollaboration 89
Part III: Design Perspectives 103
Chapter 8: Rationalism versus Empiricism in Design 105
Chapter 9: User Models–Better Wrong than Vague 113
Chapter 10: Inches, Ounces, Bits, Dollars–The Budgeted Resource 119
Chapter 11: Constraints Are Friends 127
Chapter 12: Esthetics and Style in Technical Design 139
Chapter 13: Exemplars in Design 153
Chapter 14: How Expert Designers Go Wrong 167
Chapter 15: The Divorce of Design 175
Chapter 16: Representing Designs’ Trajectories and Rationales 185
Part IV: A Computer Scientist’s Dream System for Designing Houses 201
Chapter 17: A Computer Scientist’s Dream System for Designing Houses–Mind to Machine 203
Chapter 18: A Computer Scientist’s Dream System for Designing Houses–Machine to Mind 219
Part V: Great Designers 229
Chapter 19: Great Designs Come from Great Designers 231
Chapter 20: Where Do Great Designers Come From? 243
Part VI: Trips through Design Spaces: Case Studies 257
Chapter 21: Case Study: Beach House “View/360” 259
Chapter 22: Case Study: House Wing Addition 279
Chapter 23: Case Study: Kitchen Remodeling 297
Chapter 24: Case Study: System/360 Architecture 313
Chapter 25: Case Study: IBM Operating System/360 331
Chapter 26: Case Study: Book Design of Computer Architecture: Concepts and Evolution 347
Chapter 27: Case Study: A Joint Computer Center Organization: Triangle Universities Computation Center 355
Chapter 28: Recommended Reading 367
Acknowledgments 371
Bibliography 375
People Index 393
Subject Index 401
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