Reading this book AND trying to follow its key lessons makes a huge difference in productivity, which I can testify from my own experience. This book is often compared to the bible of software engineering, suggesting that everyone knows about the book (ex: 'no silver bullet'), some people read it, but only few people abide by it. So, its key lessons are hard to follow in the real world, but for a good reason.
We started a project 5 years ago, after a few months of failed attempts. From the very onset of the project, we tried to adhere to the key lessons of the book. Examples are: recognizing the importance of minimizing communication overhead (the most important assets are not people but time), following the surgical model (key decisions should be made by a single individual), practicing effect-free programming whenever possible, allocating enough time for testing, and so on. I would definitely attribute the success of our project to the teachings of the MMM.
Like many books on software engineering (and self-help books in general), just reading a book and learning its contents may not make any difference in practice. Only when you seriously make conscious efforts to practice its teachings do you realize what the book is really about. This is also the reason why many university courses on software engineering are boring.
We started a project 5 years ago, after a few months of failed attempts. From the very onset of the project, we tried to adhere to the key lessons of the book. Examples are: recognizing the importance of minimizing communication overhead (the most important assets are not people but time), following the surgical model (key decisions should be made by a single individual), practicing effect-free programming whenever possible, allocating enough time for testing, and so on. I would definitely attribute the success of our project to the teachings of the MMM.
Like many books on software engineering (and self-help books in general), just reading a book and learning its contents may not make any difference in practice. Only when you seriously make conscious efforts to practice its teachings do you realize what the book is really about. This is also the reason why many university courses on software engineering are boring.