Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
Frederick P. Brooks Jr. (Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr.) was born on April 19th, 1931. Frederick passed away November 17th, 2022 at 91 years old. Frederick P. Brooks Jr. was born in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Brooks Jr. attended Duke University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and Harvard University where he received a Ph.D. in applied mathematics (computer science).
Frederick P. Brooks Jr. was a software engineer, computer architect, and computer scientist, and is best known managing development of IBM’s System/360 family of mainframe computers as well as the OS/360 software package. Then, he later wrote candidly about such experiences in his seminal book,
The Mythical Man-Month.
In 1956, he joined IBM, working in Yorktown and Poughkeepsie. Brooks worked on the architecture for the IBM 7030 Stretch, which is a $10 million scientific supercomputer of which just 9 were sold, and the IBM 7950 Harvest computer, which was made only for the National Security Agency. He subsequently became manager for developing the IBM System/360 family of computers. It was during this time that he coined the term of computer architecture.
Fred accepted this invitation to come to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the year 1964, and he founded the university’s computer science department. Brooks chaired the department for 20 years.
Just a few years after he left IBM, he wrote
The Mythical Man-Month. The seed for this book was planted by Thomas J. Watson Jr., who asked Fred during his exit interview exactly why it was so much tougher to manage software projects than hardware projects.
He received numerous awards, which includes the 1999 Turing Award as well as the 1985 National Medal of Technology.
The Mythical Man-Month is the rare book about software project management, since it is both timeless and influential. With its blend of thought provoking opinions and software engineering facts, he offers up insight for anybody that is managing their complex projects. These essays pull from his own experience as project manager for the IBM System/360 computer family and then for OS/360, which is its massive software system.
In the 20th anniversary edition, he revisits some of his original ideas and adds in some new advice and thoughts, both for readers new to this work and those already familiar to the book.
New chapters include a crisp condensation of all of the propositions asserted in his original book, including his central argument of the book. That large programming projects suffer from management issues different from the small ones resulting from the division of labor. That the conceptual integrity of the product is critical as a result and that it is hard yet possible to achieve such a unity. Brooks’ view of such propositions a generation later. There’s a reprinting of his classic “No Silver Bullet” paper from 1986, and his current thoughts on his assertion in the piece on how there won’t be a silver bullet inside of 10 years.
Related Authors
The most common authors followed by users who also follow Frederick P. Brooks Jr. are:
- J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings Series.
- Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
- George Orwell, author of the novel: 1984.
- J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series.
- Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files Series.
Frederick P. Brooks Jr.: F.A.Q
When was Frederick P. Brooks Jr. Born?
Frederick P. Brooks Jr. was born on April 19th, 1931.
When did Frederick P. Brooks Jr. die?
Frederick P. Brooks Jr. died on November 17th, 2022 at 91 years old.
Where was Frederick P. Brooks Jr. Born?
Frederick P. Brooks Jr. was born in Durham, North Carolina, USA.
What was the first book Frederick P. Brooks Jr. wrote?
The first book written by Frederick P. Brooks Jr. was Automatic Data Processing, published in 1969.
What was the most recent book Frederick P. Brooks Jr. wrote?
His most recently released work was Design of Design, The: Essays from a Computer Scientist on March 10th, 2010.
How many books has Frederick P. Brooks Jr. written?
Frederick P. Brooks Jr. has written 4 books. All of his books are Non-Fiction Books.