Software for Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared Vision

Software For Your Head gives us an insightful look at ourselves. Those of us who have been working on project teams for years and years, always seeking the next process idea that will really make a difference realize that it is not the process that we use that holds us back. Extreme programming, MSF, RAD,RUP, OOAD, PMI, Ad Hoc, Agile, Adaptive, Scrum ... the list goes on and on. Having studied each of these methods and having personally used many, I've found that they each have strenghts. If we would use the process, we'd be more successful. For some reason, perhaps because software that truely adds business value is really elusive we dwell on the process and not what really holds us back. It's us. We don't believe in ourselves and certainly not in each other and certainly not in our users (those footing the bill). I found that SWFH and theCore described within the book, really uncovers what is missing from our projects. It's us. SWFH describes patterns and antipatterns of our behavior. To truely get your hands around this information it requires thoughtful reading, perhaps multiple times. It requires committment to improving the way we work together. It requires committment to improving the way I work, the level and degree of my presence on the job and in life. I love software. I love technology. I love the challenge that SWFH gives me to think about my results. This is an important work and requires accountability. Read it and then read it again.

Books like Software For Your Head are rare. These are books that are so important, timely, and lucid that they transcend the subject they speak about. In this case, McCarthy is covering team psychology practices (protocols), patterns that lead to the delivery of great intellectual creative works, and the anti-patterns that destroy such efforts.When I first read this book, I was struck with how silly or unnatural (to me) some of the protocols sounded. Always one eager to subvert the dominant paradigm, I usually feel this a sign that the author's saying something worth listening to. Jim's writing style is so matter-of-fact and direct that it contributed to me chuckling repeatedly thinking, "is this guy nuts?", but at the same time driving me to read further -- for all of which he said resonated with me at a deep level. As you progress through the book, the reasons behind the patterns and protocols become clearer: we live in a world where it is considered ridiculous to express or leverage emotion in the work place, yet emotion is crucial to our nature & to creating works of high value. So -- use a set of practices that legislate the option of using of emotional information in your collaboration.Of even more value to myself is the book's description of the anti-patterns. It took me quite a while to read this work as I've had to put the book down several times after reading the anti patterns, being so overwhelmed by the accuracy of what was being said, based on all the prior situations I've been in where leaders forced the team, or sometimes the whole company, down the path of perdition.I can't think of a more important contribution to software development today. Even the agile methodologies like XP are important developments, but they don't go to as deep a level as this book does.For any software professional or creative team leader, this book comes with my highest recommendation.

This book starts with a basic assumption: Team = Product. The basic idea that the quality of your product will be equal to the quality of the team that builds is common sense, but like much else in the IT industry, no one seems to follow common sense.Form the base assumption that Team = Product, Jim and Michele McCarthy show us how to construct an environment in which teams connect quickly, gain shared vision, and proceed to ship great product. Using the pattern/anti-pattern approach, they show not only the common failings with in a team, but how to take steps to fix these problems.I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is feeling the pain of trying to ship a software product on time, on budget. The lessons you learn in this book will set you on the path to vastly improving the quality of your professional life, and the quality of the products you are required to ship.

If you loved Demarco and Lister's PEOPLEWARE but were left feeling powerless about what steps to take at work to make knowledge management better. If you ranged as far as Roger Schwarz's SKILLED FACILITATOR or Argyris's OVERCOMING ORGANIZATIONAL DEFENSES but were left at a loss about how you could apply it all in real time. If you resonated with Peter Drucker's POST CAPITALIST SOCIETY but could not apply his generalizations to daily production of knowledge capital. If any of the above, you will devour this book. Somehow books on releasing the greatness, beauty, and power of teams, always seem to strike glancing blows on real knowlede worker problems. In fact, most books won't come out and say that they want to change the world. Greatness, beauty, power, and such things come wrapped in such a mess of sociological, cultural, and managerial trouble, most books won't try to prescribe greatness et. al. Not this one. This one wants it all. World domination in catalyzing teams that concquer. The book is worth its price for its "McCarthyized" sound bites alone. But, this is in fact, genius from another dimension. You may disagree with everything it says, and still read it from cover to cover and profit greatly from constant questioning, provocation, and counter intuitive-examples provided. And there is always the chance, that the McCarthys are right.

This book is a true gift. Jim and Michele presents an excellent set of "protocols" that will help you create and be a part of a great team with shared vision.I worked as a programmer, and then as development manager for years. I lived the times when my team was closely knit, and then times when things were not going as well. I really I wish I had the "Software for Your Head" experience much earlier in my career. I recommend you to put your skepticism aside, keep an open mind and read it all the way. The "protocols" are very simple to execute, and surprisingly enough, you will see that it makes a huge difference in your daily life even when you are the only one in your office who knows about the protocols.Happy reading,Tolga.