Beautiful Teams: Inspiring and Cautionary Tales from Veteran Team Leaders

by Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene

What's it like to work on a great software development team facing an impossible problem? How do you build an effective team? Can a group of people who don't get along still build good software? How does a team leader keep everyone on track when the stakes are high and the schedule is tight?

Beautiful Teams takes you behind the scenes with some of the most interesting teams in software engineering history. You'll learn from veteran team leaders' successes and failures, told through a series of engaging personal stories -- and interviews -- by leading programmers, architects, project managers, and thought leaders.

This book includes contributions Beautiful Teams is edited by Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene, veteran software engineers and project managers who have been writing bestselling books for O'Reilly since 2005, including Applied Software Project Management , Head First PMP , and Head First C# .

Genres: Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Programming, Computers, Business

507 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Stephen Mullins · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I enjoyed several chapters in this book, I found a lot of the content to be repetitive. Many of the chapters operated within the theme that difficult situations can forge a group of coworkers into a cohesive team. I was expecting a lot more concrete information about how to form teams and improve them (a la Peopleware), but instead found myself reading hundreds of pages that just reiterated dealing with programmers is hard, communication is the key.

I wouldn't recommend this book to someone wanting practical insight into leading teams.

[Philip Derbeko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some stories are fine some are less so, some have a point and teach you something and some don't. the problem is that there are plenty of stories and you have no idea which are good and which are not.
It is an okay book to pass time if you have it.

[Jac · Rating 2 out of 5]

About half of the chapters felt worth reading. Many of them seemed pretty pointless.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some chapters were great, others were boring, and some were quite dated

[Derek Neighbors · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book switched off between stories from people in the industry and interviews from people in the industry. A few of the stories were really good. Humorous with lots of take aways. The rest were painful to read as they just dragged on. It was fascinating hearing about September 11th from two different story tellers. The interview sections in general were good, when the authors would get out of the way. They seemed more interested in telling their own story instead of just asking a question and getting a respond.

While this books has some great pointers and stories, overall its too long and has too many bad stories/interviews to make it worth while. The big take away. Teams with purpose go the furthest.

[Sergey Teplyakov · Rating 2 out of 5]

All books that consists of a list of interview are kind of special. Every story is autonomous and not related to another. But even in this case reader assumes that the story would be interesting and thoughtful. Unfortunately stories in this book are neither one nor the otherю

More detailed review in Russian could found at https://plus.google.com/1089674319474...

[Eduardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good reading that not only software development people can enjoy; some anecdotes and interviews may seem more on the entertainment side, but are generally quite enjoyable and have a couple of development or management tips between the lines.

[gramakri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for every Project Manager and Team Member !
For chapter-wise summary of this book, visit my professional blog.
http://www.rgopinath.com/2012/09/01/b...