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Updated:JAN-16-2008
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 Tom
DeMarco
Tom
DeMarco is a Principal of the Atlantic Systems Guild, and a Fellow of the Cutter Consortium. He was the winner
of the 1986 Warnier Prize for "lifetime contribution to the field
of computing, " and the 1999 Stevens Award for "contribution
to the methods of software development."
Along with the other members of The Atlantic Systems Guild, Tom has written a 2008 book on patterns of behavior observed when groups of technical workers join together to take on a substantial task. The book is called: Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior.
 His risk book (with co-author Tim Lister), Waltzing
with Bears: Managing Risk on Sofware Projects, was published by
Dorset House in March, 2003. This is the ultimate how-to book about risk
management. In its five parts it guides you in building a case for risk
management, protecting yourself against its possibly dangerous impact
in a politically unready environment, making the mechanics work, and making
sure you derive all the benefits, and testing your organization for risk
readiness. For a free three-chapter sample, go to download
pdf sample. Or click here to get
the book from Amazon.
 His
most recent business book is called Slack,
Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of
Total Efficiency. It was brought out by Random House in 2001 and
in a paperback edition in 2002. Slack answers the key questions, Why are
all so damn busy? and Is it good for us and for the companies we work
for? Download a sample chapter.
Or order
from Amazon (20% discount).
 Prior
works include The Deadline: A Novel About Project
Management, published in the summer of 1997 by Dorset
House. It is the story of a veteran software manager who bets his
life on a delivery date. How does he manage the project with the stakes
so high? Read the book and find out.
The
classic,PEOPLEWARE:
Productive Projects and Teams (with co-author Tim Lister) is now out in its second edition from Dorset House, Tom's
1995 book of essays was entitled WHY
DOES SOFTWARE COST SO MUCH? And Other Puzzles of the Information Age,
also from Dorset. (See
Ed Youdon's review of this book, reprinted from American Programmer.)
Early works include, Structured Analysis and System Specification
[Prentice-Hall, 1979], Controlling Software Projects: Management,
Measurement and Estimation, [Prentice Hall, 1982], and more than
one hundred articles and papers about management and the system development
process. In 1990, he served with Tim Lister as editor of Software:
State of the Art [Dorset House, 1990]
Beginning his career at Bell Telephone Laboratories, he was part of the
cutover team of the now-legendary ESS-1 project. In later years, he managed
real-time projects for La CEGOS Informatique in France, and was responsible
for distributed on-line banking systems installed in Sweden, Holland,
France and Finland. He has lectured and consulted throughout the Americas,
Europe, Africa, Australia and the Far East. His particular areas of interest
these days are project management, change facilitation, and litigation
of software-intensive contracts.
Tom DeMarco has a BSEE degree from Cornell University, an M.S. from Columbia
University and a diplome from the University of Paris at the Sorbonne.
He is a member of the ACM and a Fellow of the IEEE. He makes his home
in Camden, Maine.
DeMarco's
Other Side:
Tom
DeMarco's first work of mainstream fiction is entitled Dark
Harbor House. It was published by Down East Books in 2001. It
is a gentle coming of age story that takes place in the late 1940s on
an island off the coast of Maine. Lisa Alther (author of Kinflicks
and Other Women) had this to say about Dark Harbor House:
"I missed this book whenever I had to put it down, and rushed to
get back to it." Click here for reviews and pointers
and here to download Chapter 1.
 More
recently, his collection of short stories, Lieutenant
America and Miss Apple Pie, was published in October 2002, also by
Down East. This is the book that Kirkus Reviews described as "Beautifully
detailed stories, bathed in warmth". Take a look at a sample
chapter or order
Lieutenant America from Amazon.
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