Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering is an excellent book. Short and concise, the book covers 55 essential facts and 5+5 fallacies that should be common software engineering knowledge by now. Facts are discussed and the controversy over them reviewed. And every fact is backed with the references, studies, and data we need to show non-techies why their proposed action or decision is wrong. The same format is used for the fallacies, but the arguments aren’t as compelling (that would be my complaint about the book).

This book is important because we, as software developers, need to curb the widespread fallacy propagation in our industry. People are still added to late projects, and estimates and project management still suck. When you talk to your doctor about a new medical treatment, he still determines if some new article is based on facts or is just over-hyped drivel. He (or she) makes the medical decisions and you make the personal decisions. In the same manner, when someone non-technical tells us to stick to unreasonable estimates or forces some other inane decision on the team, we need to clearly show why the decision is wrong with facts and stand our ground. Technical decisions should be made by technical people, and business decisions should be made by business people.