In the early, to mid-1980s I was on a team of four people writing an order entry system. It was a project that ran for about 2 years to successful completion a

In the early, to mid-1980s I was on a team of four people writing an order entry system. It was a project that ran for about 2 years to successful completion and it was in maintenance mode for another 10 years after that. In my view, one of the things that contributed to the smooth execution of that project was that we all read the same book at about the same time. The book was "Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid". Ideas from the book framed many of our design meetings and conversations. The POET Project, as it was called, came in on time and under budget. I have spoken to other members (save one, a regrettable loss of contact) of the team and they agree that it was the slickest project that they have ever worked on.