The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder appeared in 1981. It won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. It follows engineers at the computer company Data General.
Most senior designers went to Fountainhead, the company’s high-profile project in North Carolina. Tom West led a smaller team in Westborough on a backup project called Eagle. He relied mostly on recent college graduates. Management backed the other group, but the Eagle team came out on top.