No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering
Brooks, Frederick P.
IEEE Computer 20, no. 4 (1987): 10-19
“Of all the monsters who fill the nightmares of our folklore, none terrify more than werewolves, because they transform unexpectedly from the familiar into horrors. For these, we seek bullets of silver that can magically lay them to rest.
The familiar software project has something of this character (at least as seen by the non-technical manager), usually innocent and straightforward, but capable of becoming a monster of missed schedules, blown budgets, and flawed products. So we hear desperate cries for a silver bullet, something to make software costs drop as rapidly as computer hardware costs do. ”
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