Dynamics of Software Development, Jim McCarthy. Microsoft Press, 1995.
Rules of thumb from a key player on the Visual C++ team: how to ship great software on time. Similar in tone to The Pragmatic Programmer, but aimed more at managers and team leads. McCarthy structures 53 rules, organized as opening moves, middle game, ship mode, and the launch. He considers the dynamics of team creation, of the marketplace, and of getting software to ship. My favorites: “Don’t flip the bozo bit,” “Don’t go dark,” and “Every milestone deserves a blame-free postmortem.” (Reviewed Jan., ’03)