Peopleware: Introduction

by Ed Yourdon

Nineteen ninety-nine may turn out to be the year of e-commerce, or the year in which Year 2000 is finally taken seriously, or the year that Java prevails over all other languages, or even the year that Microsoft loses its antitrust lawsuit. But whatever events and announcements capture our attention, it will still be a year in which people issues play a dominant role. Notwithstanding the ongoing controversy about importing programmers or exporting jobs, most organizations are still grappling with a shortage of experienced people. Most organizations are still looking for ways to improve the productivity, quality, loyalty, and motivation of their people. Most organizations are still looking for better ways of organizing teams. Most organizations, in short, are still concerned about a collection of issues that Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister referred to as "peopleware" in a landmark 1987 book by the same name. And so, once again, we've decided to focus on peopleware in this issue of the Cutter IT Journal.