It is hard to over-state the influence Brooks had on my work, though I am neither in computer science nor had any direct contact with the man. However, being in computational physics, I have had occasion to work on or even run medium-sized software projects, and found great value in his insights (described previously here). If a programming project ever turns out to be more than one scientist can handle (in a reasonable time, on budget, on schedule, etc. etc.), reach for Brooks' book. And if your organization doesn't support you in building the team needed to complete the task at hand and you find yourself in a morass of memory-swapping into a snail's pace of error-prone development, that is a giant clue that it is time to move on.
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