What ever happened to Tandem and NonStop OS 2001

Agreed.

No doubt. I like the fact that he felt the Waterfall Model was flawed and stated so 25 years after the fact. I incorrectly thought his 25 year anniversary book was a rehash of his earlier book, but I'm inclined to get it just for the updates.

I already stated I like Brooks. For you to claim I'm more like those on the other side of the fence than he means you're clueless about me.

I have both management and technical degrees and hardware and software experience. I choose to be technical because that is what I like. Further, I don't need to be micromanaged due to having management experience.

I tend to avoid them and have been lucky enough to do so. In my business it was the managers that buffered us technical folks (pre-management time) from the customers. I have since dealt with the customers and kept the managers on the sideline. Since then I have not had to deal with any irate customers.

Again, it is about approach. I know things don't work perfectly the first time all the time. But they could! And for you to claim that that isn't so allows for a sort of laziness on your part. I'm not saying that you freak out if things don't work; what I am saying is that if you take the approach that things could work the first time you will raise the quality of your work inherently.

Believe it or not, but you can actually educate your customers in such a manner as to make your job easier. If you took the customer's failure as your failure to have properly educated him, then you'll have a whole lot less excuses and more timely success.

This isn't about perfection. Perfection is a psychological buttessment like right and wrong. I think the practical approach of what works and what doesn't work is far better metric for success.

What I find interesting is your willingness to resign yourself to the "what is" as if you have 0% chance of improving anything. No doubt Demming couldn't get US companies to listen to him and the Japanese ate it up.

...as if it as you by the balls!

Again, it isn't about perfection, it is about being better as time goes buy and being happier about it.

So you simply refuse to change or seek improvement? And if someone suggest it, you'll have several reasons why it isn't possible? But why? Why not try something different next time to make it better?

Eric