The thing about these studies, which I do appreciate, is that they are measuring a programmer's ability to work on something:
1) Small.
2) By themselves.
3) Well understood and documented.
4) Doesn't have any threat of changing out from under them.
In the real world, the bottleneck usually isn't writing code, it's writing code that does the right thing and making the right people happy in the right way.
In some ways, trying to apply the lessons from Peopleware in the real world is like using your knowledge of unicorn anatomy to predict the Kentucky Derby.
1) Small.
2) By themselves.
3) Well understood and documented.
4) Doesn't have any threat of changing out from under them.
In the real world, the bottleneck usually isn't writing code, it's writing code that does the right thing and making the right people happy in the right way.
In some ways, trying to apply the lessons from Peopleware in the real world is like using your knowledge of unicorn anatomy to predict the Kentucky Derby.