Managing Agile Projects

This is a very practical yet thought-provoking book. The book brings in a lot of thinking from complex adaptive systems to bear on the problem of managing agile projects. A lot of early agile thinking was that the role of the manager was to buy pizza and get out of the way. This book shows how the role of the agile project manager goes well beyond that and provides very specific activities to be performed by agile project managers. The book covers topics (such as how to best organize an agile team or teams) that are glossed over elsewhere. Particularly useful may be the chapter on how to transition to an agile process. Among the specific principles and activities recommended in this book are certainly some that will immediately help your current project.

"Light Touch" is one of the key Agile Project Management practices described by Sanjiv Augustine. Among other things, Light Touch means "managing the flow of customer value ..." And that's exactly what the author delivers in this book: a continual flow of value for the agile project manager. What I especially like about this book is that it is simply written and provides straight forward, proven and actionable advice. I think that some of the best books are the ones that read us. As I read Mr. Augustine's model for agile project management, I find myself saying, "Yes, yes, that's what I thought I thought but hadn't put it into words." This book is complete. One of its unique qualities is that it provides the reader with a holistic model for agile project management including sound project management practices as well as fundamental leadership practices. Most books on project management, either deal with one or the other. For agile projects, management and leadership are inseparable. A great feature of the book is the inside front cover that serves as a snappy, bulleted overview of Mr. Augustine's entire model which is made up of Three Guiding Principles: Foster Alignment and Cooperation, Encourage Emergence and Self Organization and Institute Learning and Adaptation. Each of these principles is delineated into both project management and leadership practices. And these provide the framework for the entire book which is full of examples, specific practices and tools. And although this book is written primarily for software projects, the principles and practices can be applied to any agile project. Doug DeCarlo

Finally someone has captured the correct approach for managing agile projects. The project management community has been lacking a true approach for handling this ever-turbulent world of changing requirements, reduced budgets and limited resources. PMI has a good foundation of skills to become a PM, but the APM provides you with another set of skills to handle real-world project situations. Sanjiv does an excellent job of laying out this approach in his book. His real-world examples give project managers good insight into the APM approach, while his set of tools provide them with items they can use on the job immediately. In addition, by providing more than just theory in his book, project managers can begin to see how APM really works. Kudos to Sanjiv for opening our eyes to a new management style for the 21st century.

This book takes a unique approach to the nascent subject of agile project management by weaving a deep historical and logical context for the principles that he promotes. These guidelines are easy to understand, thanks to the extensive supporting evidence provided, though it is also clear that they can be challenging to practice effectively. Sanjiv emphasizes that the human aspects of project management, so often downplayed in favor of reams of complex plans and tools, deserve more respect and demand more dedication than they are generally afforded. Through a strong comparison of project management to complex adaptive systems found in nature, the book manages to make a convincing case for each point of this argument. At the same time, he illustrates how judicious application of a few simple tools and methods can make the management of human interactions much less daunting. Some standout aspects of the book from a reader's perspective are the lively writing style, the wide-ranging anecdotes (personal, industry, scientific, historical), and the clean, well-organized presentation. On the whole, this book offers a very different and complementary perspective on the subject than the other texts available, and would be a superb addition to the libraries of those looking to master this vital component of agile project delivery.

I highly recommend this book to anyone considering adopting agile techniques in their organization. There are several things that make this work stand out: a) It has many useful tools that can be put into practice immediately. One can go to just about any page in the book and find a useful team or project tool and discover how to use it and why it works. b) This book explains why agile management techniques work. Other books have discussed agile leadership but this one takes the next step in helping the practitioner to understand why these techniques are so powerful and why they can and should work. Don't underestimate the importance of this. Knowing why and how agile techniques work is critical to being able to sell agile to management and customers. c) It doesn't shy away from intellectual and scientific discussions. Many books on either project management or agile have very little intellectual firepower to support their claims. This is one of the few books on agile management that that has some critical thinking behind it.