Peopleware Papers: Notes on the Human Side of Software, The

Chapter 1. Decisions, Decisions

There is more than one way. There is always more than one way. This simple credo has been a practical beacon throughout my professional life, leading me to consider alternatives in how software might be organized and how people might be organized. But recognizing alternatives also carries a burden, the burden of making decisions. Developing better software means making choices among alternatives and, better still, finding that creative synthesis that integrates the best of several approaches and thereby exceeds them all. Well-organized teams that base decision making and problem solving on consensus have the best shot at making quality decisions and building such a creative synthesis, but they need to know how to ...