I assume you are familiar with "Peopleware" by Demarco and Lister, although 
other books with that in their name are also likely to be of interest. I 
have read Peopleware, and it does deal with the human element in IT, 
although it is applicable to other industries, and it deals with the human 
elements somewhat broadly.

Ironically, Dilbert is not a bad source, once you weed out the talking 
animals. The details may be a bit absurd or very basic, but the business 
situations are close enough. For instance, Dilbert needs to upgrade his 
workstation, but the approval process is onerous he decides he would be 
better off taking a parttime job to pay for the upgrade himself. Who has not 
dealt with a procurement process so byzantine as to discourage use? When I 
was in college, I worked in a state office where employees routinely brought 
in their own mechanical pencils, rather than hassle with getting the #2 
pencils provided. I assume had they used disposable pens, their treachery 
would have been exposed. Who hasn't had someone else put off a decision or 
let something sit in their inbox while the project window dwindles and the 
deadline looms nearer, and only then pass it on to the worker whose job it 
is to get the work done?

Scott Adams published a book at the end of which he included some emails he 
had received, that he was not able to turn in to a comic, but which were 
positively Dilbertesque. This may have been "The Dilbert Principle".

Greg Stigers 

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