We're struggling to manage development of our new sales automation application. As usual, Philip Greenspun comes to the rescue with his article on Managing Software Engineers from end of the ArsDigita days. I doubt it will change the way this project is run to completion but it affirms my belief in the software engineer–if you must use that term–as the center of software development efforts.
Some of Philip's opinions seem somewhat dated in this post dot-com job market–I can't imagine Tyco putting a lounge with pinball machines in our cube farm–but the core ideas are still relevant especially on the subject of motivation. His notion of a single developer owning a project as the best way of improving quality and rapidity fits perfectly with Herzberg's theory.
The most disturbing suggestion is incompetent programmers are unaware of their own incompetence. According to Philip's definition, Mallinckrodt has no "good programmers." I guess admitting you aren't a good programmer is the first step.