My most popular content...

 

Prior to 2022, google analytics shows my most popular content is the book summaries. So, here's a list with direct links. 

1. The DevOps Handbook - a four-part book summary
2. Lean Start-Up - a three-part book summary
3. Kanban - a seven-part book summary

If you like this type of content then you are sure to enjoy these as well:

1. The Nature of Software - Mary Poppendieck (30-minute read)
2. Agile Fluency - The Agile Fluency Project
3. Large Scale Scrum - the LeSS framework by Craig Larman & Bas Vodde

If you are looking for an afternoon read, Doc Norton's book Escape Velocity is excellent. A short book but packed with good software delivery practice wisdom. 

Have fun!

The Lean Start Up

The Lean Start Up: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries.

While working at Gap Inc. concepts from this book were frequently leveraged. I learned by doing. After leaving Gap I read the book and see we implemented some of the concepts well and others, less so.

This is a great book worthy of study. I created a book summary using my kindle highlights. The summary is almost entirely excerpts from the book. My goal was to create a reference or study guide for myself and to share with others. If you haven't read the book and don't have the time to read the whole book (takes maybe a few days) then this summary is worth your time to read. If you only want to review the key concepts - it is probably not for you.

If I had it to do over again I would have synthesized more and excerpted less.  Live and learn.

Lean IT Field Guide

A colleague from my Nationwide days, Tom Paider, co-authored a book with Michael Orzen called The Lean IT Field Guide: A Roadmap for Your Transformation. The book based in part on our shared experience of establishing Nationwide's Application Development Center. More on that here.

His book is a how to guide for applying certain aspects of Lean to corporate IT. The focus of the book is summarized below:

The modern enterprise has a simple goal: create sustainable value i.e. make money now and in the long run.  A principle challenge is leading and managing a very large number of people to achieve the goal. To achieve the goal most would agree we need:

1. Alignment from the top down on purpose and strategy
2. Effective bottom up execution matched to the strategy
3. Clear feedback enabling the adjustments needed to achieve the purpose

In brief Lean enables people at every level to understand and improve the part they play in achieving the goal. Employees define baseline work processes called "standard work," along with their performance metrics, problems and potential solutions called "counter-measures." Collaborative cycles of Plan, Do, Check, Adjust apply the scientific method to solve these problems using a simple "A3"  document. Leaders "Go See" on "Gemba Walks" to understand what's happening and to mentor and learn how to support their people. All of this is big and visible.  All of this happens at every level - not just the front line.

I created an excerpt based summary of the book in two parts. Part one starts here.