Notes from a Tool User

Discovery De-Mystified

In "The Myth of Discovery" Ted Neward complains that the software industry is unwilling to look beyond its bounds for new ideas and innovation. What surprises me is how little evidence he offers. In column against the software industry he cites only: Jeff Palermo's essay on "The Myth of Self-Organizing Teams" (an item I mostly agree with).

Oddly Ted offers evidence from the Agile community suggesting we do borrow ideas - citing Mary and Tom Poppendieck and their refinement of Lean ideas for software development. In this case his problem is that development managers/project leads aren't yet given the opportunity to say a product won't ship because the quality isn't there. Well I understand where he's coming from, but it seems like a mis-understanding of Lean/Agile principals which focus on building the quality in - not refusing to ship because the quality isn't there.

In any case I think that more people than Ted acknowledges, do their research outside of the software industry. Some examples:

Best Agile Books 2007 Development/Code Related

The third and final my Best Agile Books the 2007 Edition series. (Part II was Background Material). There will be even fewer notes than there were in yesterday's. It really has been a long week.

Development/Code Related 

Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers - Do you have legacy code? Does your code include areas that are untested and tightly coupled? Yes? Then you have legacy code. Michael focuses on the problem of teasing apart legacy

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler et al - One of the original Agile related books. It defines the concept of refactoring (personal bugbear - refactorings are small changes that don't affect the behavior of the code), explains how to practice it and catalogs over 70 refactorings. 

Test Driven Development by Kent Beck - The original TDD book. Clean, bug free, simple code. That is the promise of TDD. Its that simple nothing more to say. BTW the examples are in C# so some of the details won't apply to Java/Ruby/Python coders.

Late Breaking news: J.B. Rainsberger introduced me to: Test Driven: TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers by Lasse Koskela. I'm only about 120 pages in, but so far am very impressed. Its even caused me to change a few of my habits - specifically which test I choose to write first.

Another Late Breaking item - Robin Dymond gave this one a very strong recommendation: xUnit Test Patterns: Refactoring Test Code by Gerard Meszaros. I've not read this yet - but Gerard covers Test Smells and Refactoring. In other words how to spot trouble your test code and repair the damage.

Refactoring to Patterns by Joshua Kerievsky. Have mess, want to bring some order to it.

Head First Design Patterns by Elisabeth Freeman (et al). I struggled through the Original GOF Design Patterns book twelve years ago now. Thankfully Elisabeth and co. wrote a funny, irreverent and so you don't have to.

What are your favorite Agile Books? 

Caveat Emptor - if you buy any of the books after clicking on my link I get 4% of the price. In all likelihood that means I might be able to afford a coffee or two.

Coming up posts on: Iteration Length (another lesson learned that I didn't think of in my original post) and Pair Programming vs. Code Reviews a rebuttal.

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Best Agile Books 2007 the Background Material

This is the second part of my Best Agile Books in 2007 Edition. This post will considerably lighter on notes than its predecessor because I'm tired and under the weather.

Background Books

Corporate Culture Survival Guide by Edgar H. Schein - an insightful book that looks at the corporate culture and how it forms. In the second half it examines how to coax change out of an organization. Think of it as Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas for corporations. Added bonus its short and to the point.

Peopleware (2^nd Ed) by Tom Demarco and Timothy Lister  - A pre Agile classic on how development (and other) succeed and fail. They start by demonstrating most project failures are people and not technology related. They go on to help you organize and build better teams. Sadly this book has been in print for twenty years and we're still making the same mistakes. 

"The Wisdom of Teams" by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith - Another pre Agile book Katzenbach and Smith study real teams in many industries providing some real analysis and rigour to the question of what made these teams successful. By the end of the book you will discover that "Nothing can guarantee the creation of high performance teams. The best you can do is put in place the conditions that will help them form." This book was at the core of my series Why Scrum Works. 

Influence, Science and Practice by Robert Cildani - You probably read this in an undergraduate psych course. Consider going back to read it again. This classic work covers how and why people are influenced. This is at play as our teams organize themselves and also as we try to influence others to try our new ideas. Its only one of the few books in recent years that I've read a second time and taken notes from. (The other being Jean's Collaboration Explained).

Do It Tomorrow by Mark Forester - Personal productivity guide. He explains why closed lists (effectively a Sprint Backlog) work so well. He's helped me become far more productive just by forcing me to map out what I will achieve after the daily scrum and then taking on nothing more during the day (except for issues raised by the team). Crises from outside the team will often resolve themselves without your intervention. There is alot of other good ideas to be mined here.

Getting Things Done by David Allen - the other great personal productivity. David's focus is on emptying your brain so that you can focus on what's important and not on the milk you promised you would pick up on the way home from work.

Half Truths and Dangerous Lies by Robert Sutton and Jeffery Pfeffer - A simple read on evidence based management. Many common rules of management are no more than myths passed down from generation to generation. They debunk pay for performance, forced ranking (employees are sorted in three buckets: top 20%, middle 70% and low 10%) and many other best practices. It's great if somewhat depressing read - after all most of us work for employers who subscribe to one or more these myths.

The No Asshole Rule by Robert Sutton - Are you an Asshole in the workplace? Do you know one? Bob will help you discover whether you are one (and self correct), survive them and document the damage they cause. My asshole test score can be found in this post from earlier in the year.

As I look back on this batch of books I can say that these were easily the most fun of the batch to read. I've got one more post on Code coming in and then I will return to The Year of Scrum: Lessons Learned. 

What are your favorite Agile Books?

Caveat Emptor - if you buy any of the books after clicking on my link I get 4% of the price. In all likelihood that means I might be able to afford a coffee or two.

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Best Agile Books the 2007 Edition

Last year in response to some questions at a CSM course I wrote a post: "Top 8 Agile Books: Beyond the Basics". This past week I was help out at a CSM course when the topic came up again. This time I've a much longer list of books.

Top Three – I wouldn't start an Agile project without these

Agile Software Development: A Cooperative Game (2nd Ed) by Alistair Cockburn - Possibly the most interesting book I've ever read about agile software development. It's not about any one methodology, instead Alistair analyzes game play, individual communication, team cooperation: the elements that are the core of all software development. The book also includes sections on Agile outside of Software, a survey of the various methodologies and much more.

Collaboration Explained by Jean Tabaka - A through explanation of what our role as ScrumMasters, Coaches and Facilitators is. It helps agilists understand (and perhaps manage) team dynamics. It’s also the source for my Planning and Retrospective agendas. See: Good Agenda’s make Great Meetings. My comments are in no way biased by the whiskey Jean bought on the first day of the Agile conference this year.

Agile Estimation and Planning by Mike Cohn - Sprint Planning to Release Planning. Estimating in Story Points vs. Ideal Days. One stop reading for planning. Added bonus the book is very easy to read - only five hours and I'd read most of it.

Other Important Agile Books

"Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great" by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen - some great ideas for taking your Agile Retrospectives to the next level.

"Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas" by Mary Lynn Manns, Linda Rising. Trying to introduce change into your organization (if you're reading this post that's a safe bet)? Finding it hard? Look to Fearless Change for some great ideas - there are no silver bullets but this will at least give a fresh source of ideas and a starting point. Remember organizational change won’t happen overnight.

"User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development" by Mike Cohn. Think that "An invitation to a conversation" doesn't quite describe User Stories in enough detail. Need to move on from the traditional requirements to an Agile approach and don't know how. This book was written for you.

Other Agile Methodologies

"Lean Software Development" by Mary and Tom Poppendieck - do you want to know how the Toyota Production System can be applied to Software development? Are you fascinated with a process that developed nearly forty years ago continues to help Toyota adapt to change? Need to uncover waste? Start Reading. 

"Crystal Clear" by Alistair Cockburn - it seems everybody and their brother has written a methodology book. So why does Alistair's stand out? Because Alistair is the Agile community's ethnographer/anthropologist. He studies real live development teams to see what succeeded and perhaps more importantly what failed. Crystal Clear is his distillation of those studies. In addition the Crystal family of methodologies is interesting because Alistair designed them to be adaptable on several axes: project size/budget, criticalness (ie plain old website -> life critical system). 

"Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change" by Kent Beck - you heard alot about XP - both good and bad, you've heard alot of hyperbole - with people claiming that XP is a license to hack or that it will solve all problems for all projects. Kent actually explains the stuff that matters. 

I've got posts on Background and Code coming up and then I will return year of Scrum: Lessons Learned. Sorry for the recent silence life has been rather busy.

Caveat Emptor - if you buy any of the books after clicking on my link I get 4% of the price. In all likelihood that means I might be able to afford a coffee or two.

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Congrats to Alistair Cockburn on winning a Jolt Award

I’ve longed enjoyed Alistair Cockburn’s books and now he’s won a Jolt award for Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game. If you’ve not already read – stop reading this blog and buy a copy.

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Arseholes aren't Agile, they're an impediment. Are you an ARSE?

Bob Sutton author of several excellent books “The No Asshole Rule” and “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense” (my current reading). I took the Asshole Rating Self Exam today and scored 4, which makes me seem pretty normal. More telling what would my score be if my wife and co-workers filled it out, perhaps my score would be a bit higher.

From Guy Kawaski’s posting I also like the story about SuccessFactors and their Rules of Engagement (apparently every employee has to sign these).

These rules sound like very agile/lean in nature. Specifically the rules:

• I will demonstrate respect for the individual; I will be nice and listen to others, and respect myself. I will act with integrity and professionalism.
• I will help my colleagues and recognize the team when we win. I will never leave them behind when we lose.
• I will constantly improve Kaizen! I will approach every day as an opportunity to do a better job, admitting to and learning from my mistakes.
• I will selflessly pursue customer success.
• I will support the culture of meritocracy and pay for performance.
• I will be transparent. I will communicate clearly and be brutally honest, even when it’s difficult, because I trust my colleagues.

Bob's book and test make a great reminder. Arseholes are not agile, they're impediment and road block to getting the job done.

Update this post was picked up in the March 1 Carnival of Agilists - Thanks to Kevin for deciding that a Brit living in Canada is a Brit.

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Agile Software Development

Blogging Retrsopective (or four months in the review)

Getting Things Done, Nightmare with Sears Canada, Scrum and Photography are just some of the subjects that I’ve written about in my first four months of blogging. If you've read every post I've ever written (Hello to Ben and David), stop now, this one will add nothing new. Here are my top posts as chosen by me (far more interesting than letting a computer do all the work).

Tools

Getting Things Done!!! Can't Keep Track of all the tasks you have to do? Need a better Tool to Implement GTD? Always chasing little scraps of paper around the office? Then consider "My Life Organized" (MLO) as a task manager...

Trying to recover files from a corrupt NTFS drive? A friend just asked me what tool I use to recover files from a corrupt NTFS filesystem...

Can Agile methods be applied outside software development? Join the discussion
I've always been intrigued by the application of Agile methods outside of Software Development. Beyond Toyota what other systems use or can benefit from an Agile approach to problem solving.

Nightmare with Sears Canada or when to purchase an extended warranty?
Adrian on Hardware 2.0 quoting a study from consumer reports says that you probably don’t need that extended warranty. However there are just sometimes when you really do need one.

Key Tricks in writing for the Web or more lessons learned at BarCamp2 in Ottawa
Make your keypoints in the first paragraph, include your keywords in the title and url. 150 words is all you have to capture your readers attention.Software Development

Tired of Notepad? Want a better text editor?
I've spend alot of time playing with little bits of text - sometimes from files, sometimes copy and pasted from some other app. I quickly grew tired of the built-in Notepad and all its limitations.

Want to get the best Life from your Lithium-Ion battery?
A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles. Do you know how to get the best life out of your batteries?

Photography

Is the Canon 400D/Rebel XTi - worth the price?
Unlike the D80, the 400D has only been around for a couple of months, so many of my favorite reviewers only have Initial tests up. However there are enough reviews out to give an excellent idea of the strengths and weaknesses of EOS400D.

Nikon D80 - hot or not
Want to to find the best reviews of the D80 and skip rest? This post is place to start. By now I've found over twenty reviews of the D80 and mostly they just repeat themselves. This post is your guide to the reviews.

Software Development

Scrum in a Nutshell or 5 minutes to learn scrum
Heard the buzz about Scrum want to learn more? Want to get a sense of what it is and why many teams choose to use it?

Too many bugs making it to production? The role of QA in Agile/Scrum
Do your team members spend a lot of time interpreting bug reports? The traditional waterfall QA model is broken.

Online Code Reviews suck - even Guido van Rossum can't fix that
Guido van Rossum has created a new tool project called Mondrian for online code reviews. But even Guido can't solve the fundamental problems of an online code review. Nothing beats face to face communication.

Nasty catch with: Royalty free licensing of the Office User Interface?
MS just announced the royalty free licensing of the Office User Interface. At first glance this seems like a very generous offer since it includes much detail on how to what behaviors you must implement (Ribbon resizing anybody?).

Top 8 Agile Books: Beyond the Basics
Now you’ve read the basic introductory books to Agile Software development and you want to learn more, here’s my recent reading list...

Too much abstraction?? Bah Humbug
Ted Neward laments the habit of building: "building abstraction layers on top of abstraction layers on top of abstraction layers…

Best Introductions to SCRUM
Looking for a good online introduction to Scrum? Here are my favorites

Retrospective Agility
"Retrospective Agility" by Tim MacKinnon (part of a long pdf - too bad you can't easily link inside these beasts) is a great starting point for running a retrospective.

Influence Science Practice

Influence – How and why does it work?
I’ve never read a book twice and not since undergrad have I taken notes on a book. Yet Robert Cialdini’s "Influence Science and Practice” is so engaging that I’m enjoying a second read.

Influence: Science and Practice - other sources
After my introductory notes, I've received a few inquires about more notes on Cialdini's Influence Science and Practice. So I dug around on the web and offer up my discoveries.

Why are we so easily influenced? Weapons of Influence
Do you ever walk into a clothing store just to buy a suit and walk out having bought the suit, tie, belt and several shirts? This chapter will explain what just happened.

Food

Cafe Chez Victor
I've never lined up to pay my restaurant bill but last Tuesday night at Chez Victor it was so busy that I had to.

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Why are we so easily influenced? Weapons of Influence

 

Do you ever walk into a clothing store just to buy a suit and walk out having bought the suit, tie, belt and several shirts? This chapter will explain what just happened.

This is the third posting in an ongoing series of notes from Robert Caildini's " Influence: Science and Practice". This posting covers Chapter 2 "Weapons of Influence" Other postings in this series: Introduction, Other Sources coming soon: Reciprocation, Commitment/Consistency, Authority, Social Validation, Scarcity, Liking/Friendship

"Weapons of Influence" introduces the concept of fixed-action patterns or automatic responses.

Influence: Science and Practice - other sources

After my introductory notes, I've received a few inquires about more notes on Cialdini's Influence Science and Practice. So I dug around on the web and offer up my discoveries.

The best of the bunch (much like my own) is a series in six parts starting on Janin's (sp?) blog happening-here. Update: Just discovered Marshall Soules class Media studies 205: Promotion, Persuasion and Propaganda. Fall 2006. (at Malaspina University College, Nanaimo BC). Marshall's course also has an extensive summary.

 

Other pages of interest:

• Scott Foresman's one page summary: http://pages.prodigy.net/mschnall/cialdini.html
• Some good notes from the Mind Hack's blog
• An extended review courtesy of PronettSolutions
• Another extended review by Jack Thomas
• Back issues of the influence report - a monthly report put out Robert's company that contain new snippets.
• Robert Cialdini's company offers seminars
• Finally the inevitable Wikipedia  entry

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Influence Science Practice

Top 8 Agile Books: Beyond the Basics

Now you’ve read the basic introductory books to Agile Software development and you want to learn more, here’s my recent reading list:

" Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game (2nd Edition)" by Alistair Cockburn. Possibly the most interesting book I've ever read about agile software development. Its not about any one methodology, instead Alistair analyses game play, individual communication, team cooperation the elements that are the core of all software development. The second edition (which is finally at Amazon as Nov 13) builds on the strengths of the first with a number of new sections including applications of Agile outside of the computer industry. To get a taste of the second edition read the story of Alistair's home renovation in Mishkin's blog - this is what finally crystallized Agile Software development for my wife. If you want to understand the principles and philosophies of Agile Software development start here.