from Hacker News

Ask HN: Suggested reading about managing R&D projects

by random_moonwalk on 4/25/22, 12:56 PM with 19 comments

• by jebarker on 4/25/22, 1:13 PM

  Not directly management books. I work in an R&D lab myself and two books I found useful in thinking about the structure and evaluation of projects:

  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11797471-the-idea-factor...

  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/530415.The_Art_of_Doing_...

• by theshrike79 on 4/25/22, 1:10 PM

  Peopleware[0]

  If you lead any kind of team in IT it is required reading. It will make you a bit sad though: it was written in 1987 presenting common problems and solutions to said problems. We're still struggling to get the solutions implemented today.

  [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67825.Peopleware

• by mathattack on 4/25/22, 12:59 PM

  Much less true science there. Two biographies worth reading. One is about aircraft R&D, the other a computer. Both fall on the R side of R&D.

  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/skunk-works-leo-janos/11247...

  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soul-of-a-new-machine-tracy...

• by itsdrewmiller on 4/25/22, 2:36 PM

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month is a classic for a reason, on this exact topic.

• by tra3 on 4/25/22, 3:55 PM

  Great question, I've taken some of these books down to read later.

  I was fascinated by The Pentagon Wars [0]. Arguably US Military is one of the biggest bureaucracies that spends tons of money on R&D projects. Apart from describing the issues with the projects themselves, the author describes how structuring the incentives could potentially pervert the process of developing new tech. I really loved it.

  [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Pentagon-Wars-Reformers-Challenge-Gua...

• by RhysU on 4/25/22, 11:30 PM

  I have a completed outline for an Applied Research Management book following the old Scott Meyers format.

  Of course, I am slowly working on the writing phase.

  Hit me up by email if you would like to pick over the outline.

• by jpttsn on 4/25/22, 1:58 PM

  I enjoyed The History of the Making of the Atomic Bomb