Mythical Man-Month Essay
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Richard Hsieh (rhsieh)
02/19/03

   According to Frederick P. Brooks, there are two essential planning stages
in a software engineering project: architecture and implementation.  The
architecture involves creating the specifications for the project, while the
implmentation takes into the account what we know as design.  In his essay
titled "Aristocracy, Democracy, and System Design," Brooks suggests that
there these two stages be complete independent of one another.  That is, the
architects should write all the specifications for the project, while the
implementers stay strictly with designing the program from those
specifications.

   Using this methodology to produce large projects and  operating systems,
I would have to completely agree with Brooks.  During one of my summer
internships with a eCRM company, I was given a specifications document with
all features that I was to implement in a demo program.  I did not know how
this program would fit into the company's entire system, but I knew clearly
what I had to do.  By not having to write up specifications, I did not have
to deal with all the hassle of having to communicate with countless people
to figure out what was needed.  Also, I was able to focus and put all my
effort into a specific task.

   However, in a small team that is creating a project from the ground up,
Brooks' ideas are hard to follow.  I found it difficult to imagine a small
team of workers where half were involved with administrative work, a few
with clerical duties, and the rest with programming.  It seems that if a
project were divided in such a way, little would get done and many would be
sitting around with little to do.  Instead, I imagine that the original
architects would become implementers, and those implementers would
eventually be the realizers.  All members would know the architecture of the
entire project, but would implement separate parts.  Unless one were to
write an operating system, I see this as a adequate method of organizing a
team for any type of project.