Fred Brooks

American computer scientist (1931–2022); author of The Mythical Man-Month and 'No Silver Bullet' (1986), which distinguished essential from accidental complexity in software engineering

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Lived 1931–2022, aged 91United States

United States AcademicsAcademic

Wikipedia
38 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1931–2022
Aged 91
Awards
16
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-19

Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr. was an American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing development of IBM's System/360 family of mainframe computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about those experiences in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month.