Agile Uprising Book Shelves

#1

Let’s give a shout out to books you have read! Would like to start a virtual library reference and eventual a post on the Agile Uprising website content!
Author Name
Title
Area of focus
Quick tip on why you liked the book

A list of the top 15 agile books
Welcome to the Coalition! Introduce yourself :-)
#2

The book that got me on the Agile bus was “Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time” by Jeff Sutherland. Given to me by @ryan about two years ago. It was a great introduction with real-world examples to how Agile techniques can help you organize your projects and deliver great results.

#3

I’m looking for a book on Kanban, particularly on a large scale enterprise level. Any recommendations?

#4

Enterprise Service Planning is David Anderson’s solution to Kanban at Scale there is not book on it yet but there are a few Decks on it on Slide Share. Henrik Kniberg has the book Lean From the Trenches. It is a really easy Read and has some good point. Would not call it enterprise scale but it was a pretty big project…

#5

Jason Little
Lean Change Management
Organizational Change

This is one of the best agile-specific books I’ve read. There’s some innovative suggestions around how to lead change in an organization and how to customize an approach to successful change. My most highlighted and bookmarked book on my shelf.

#6

Sriram Narayan
Agile IT Organizational Design
Agile Transformation

This is written to be business or operations facing but with an IT bent. Talks mostly about how to structure your organization to embrace the agile mindset and to make the best use of agile adoption by IT. Not framework specific, a little dry, but a good read.

#7

John Kay
Obliquity
Goals & Problem Solving

Kay is an economist, and he provides multiple examples of how it’s best to achieve your goals by coming at them not directly but from an angle; some of his thinking mirrors the agile mindset regarding central planning economic theory (think “waterfall”) and how trying to navigate a direct path to a goal like “deliver shareholder value” (think “complete the entire project charter”) ends in failure due to a misalignment of what is important to meeting every dotted “i” and crossed “t” (think “we have to complete every deliverable in the charter” vs. “define the MVP and strive for that”). Interesting stuff.

#8

Second the Lean Change Management book. Built A bunch of change canvas after reading it.

#9

Nassim Taleb
Taleb Trilogy (Fooled by Randomness/The Black Swan/Antifragile)
Forecasting

I put all 3 together as they go hand-in-hand; these books deal with concepts like:
-randomness interpreted as predictable
-confirmation bias
-historical narrative
-using past history to predict future performance (think The Big Short :slight_smile: )
-building systems that are “antifragile”, that not only weather but thrive in difficult environments.

Not an easy read, a bit like reading a philosopher’s journey thru the woods. There’s some heavy math that I partially skipped (fractals, Mandelbrot sets) but otherwise they’re great books and really make you think.

#10

Matt, or others: Audio or book? Is there value to getting the book, or will it work to get the audio version? I could get to it faster if audio but if there are diagrams/tables etc I wanted to know.

#11

That book is available on Audible.com… I believe you may be able to get for free or discount with a promo code form the Agile for Humans podcast…

#12

yes, audible.com or CD. I was thinking CD so I could share with others on my team, but either way, just checking that I wouldn’t lose stuff that I should see in the book.

#13

I often by the kindle books now and have Siri read it to me. Which is madding at times…

#14

lol there’s a thought. OK I’ll get the audio version, thanks :slight_smile:

#15

Jez Humble
Lean Enterprise: How High Performing Organizations Innovate at Scale
Patterns and principles for Scaling, fast.

This is definitely one of my favorites. Great stories. Very thought provoking. Applicable to companies of all types and sizes. I like it so much, I wont even lend it out.

#16

I have a bookshelf full of great reads and an Audible library of great listens. Here is some recents…

Kerry Patterson
Critical Conversations
Communication Skills

Really helped me with my listening skills and how to better approach a conversation.

Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
The Phoenix Project
The Reality of IT/DevOps

Entertaining. Focused on why a strong partnership between IT and Business is necessary to survive in the digital age.

Seth Godin
Linchpin
Making Yourself Indispensable

Talks about those people that just get sh*t done, and why they are the most valuable to an organization.

#17

@Scrummando I’m a third of the way through Lean from the Trenches. Really enjoying it so far it is an easy read for sure.

#18

Linchpin is fantastic. Follow his blog; he writes really short posts that are always positive and make you think.

#19

Some of my favorites. Better yet, click on the links, and it’ll take you to Amazon and show you what passages I highlighted.

Turn the Ship Around
Lean Start Up
Make to Stick
Switch
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

#20

Becoming a Counselor; The Light, The Bright, and the Serious -Samuel T. Gladding
Lean Change Management: Innovative Practices for Managing Organizational Change - Jason Little
Toyota Kata - Mike Rother
Managing for Happiness: Games, Tools, and Practices to Motivate Any Team - Jurgen Appelo
Crucial Conversations - Kerry Patterson