What do you think?
Rate this book
Becoming Agile: ...in an imperfect world
Many books discuss Agile from a theoretical or academic perspective. Becoming Agile takes a different approach and focuses on explaining Agile from a case-study perspective. Agile principles are discussed, explained, and then demonstrated in the context of a case study that flows throughout the book. The case study is based on a mixture of the author's real-world experiences.
Becoming Agile also focuses on the importance of adapting Agile principles to the realities of your environment. In the early days of Agile, there was a general belief that Agile had to be used in all phases of a project, and that it had to be used in its purest form. Over the last few years, reputable Agile authorities have begun questioning this belief: We're finding that the best deployments of Agile are customized to the realities of a given company.
Becoming Agile discusses the cultural realities of deploying Agile and how to deal with the needs of executives, managers, and the development team during migration. The author discusses employee motivation and establishing incentives that reward support of Agile techniques.
Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.
Praise for Becoming Agile...
"This is much more than just a book about Agile. This is a roadmap. A very detailed roadmap that takes you from the initial "is Agile right for me?" stage through completion and delivery of your pilot project and beyond."
-Charlie Griefer, Senior Software Engineer, Amcom Technology
"...a must read for those of us who have come from years of waterfall and attempts at changes to "traditional" methodologies or processes... clear, concise and has plenty of example scenarios that many individuals and corporations would identify with."
-Jamie Phillips, Senior Software Engineer, Picis Inc
"This book is quite unique. It is written in a form of a 5-day training course. I am usually not a fan of such a writing style, but I think that Becoming Agile is an exception. It's about a software process and as such requires a lot of case studies, group exercises (or at least what a book format allows), and therefore the training course style is perfect to facilitate learning."
-Vladimir Pasman, Cocoacast.com
"Becoming Agile in an Imperfect World offers a different and useful look at Agile methods. Reminding us that becoming agile is more of a mindset adjustment than a process change, Sidky and Smith use a case study to share their insights and tools throughout the book, including the unique Sidky Agile Measurement Index (SAMI)."
-Sanjiv Augustine, President, LitheSpeed LLC and author of Managing Agile Projects
"The authors emphasise that the aim should be to create a customised agile development process that is tailored to the needs of the organisation...Instead of aiming for "agile perfection", one should aim at reaching the right level of agility for one's organisation. Excellent advice!"
-Kailash Awati, Eight to Late
"The book totally inspired me. A lot of my readings on Agile from back in the day were very theoretical and high level at the same time. But Becoming Agile helps take you to the next level by going beyond the theory and into the nitty gritty practicality of employing the Agile approach. So it was very energizing having the game plan laid out in front of you, as well as the hurdles you'll encounter and how to overcome them."
-Tariq Ahmed, author of Flex 3 in Action
Becoming Agile also focuses on the importance of adapting Agile principles to the realities of your environment. In the early days of Agile, there was a general belief that Agile had to be used in all phases of a project, and that it had to be used in its purest form. Over the last few years, reputable Agile authorities have begun questioning this belief: We're finding that the best deployments of Agile are customized to the realities of a given company.
Becoming Agile discusses the cultural realities of deploying Agile and how to deal with the needs of executives, managers, and the development team during migration. The author discusses employee motivation and establishing incentives that reward support of Agile techniques.
Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.
Praise for Becoming Agile...
"This is much more than just a book about Agile. This is a roadmap. A very detailed roadmap that takes you from the initial "is Agile right for me?" stage through completion and delivery of your pilot project and beyond."
-Charlie Griefer, Senior Software Engineer, Amcom Technology
"...a must read for those of us who have come from years of waterfall and attempts at changes to "traditional" methodologies or processes... clear, concise and has plenty of example scenarios that many individuals and corporations would identify with."
-Jamie Phillips, Senior Software Engineer, Picis Inc
"This book is quite unique. It is written in a form of a 5-day training course. I am usually not a fan of such a writing style, but I think that Becoming Agile is an exception. It's about a software process and as such requires a lot of case studies, group exercises (or at least what a book format allows), and therefore the training course style is perfect to facilitate learning."
-Vladimir Pasman, Cocoacast.com
"Becoming Agile in an Imperfect World offers a different and useful look at Agile methods. Reminding us that becoming agile is more of a mindset adjustment than a process change, Sidky and Smith use a case study to share their insights and tools throughout the book, including the unique Sidky Agile Measurement Index (SAMI)."
-Sanjiv Augustine, President, LitheSpeed LLC and author of Managing Agile Projects
"The authors emphasise that the aim should be to create a customised agile development process that is tailored to the needs of the organisation...Instead of aiming for "agile perfection", one should aim at reaching the right level of agility for one's organisation. Excellent advice!"
-Kailash Awati, Eight to Late
"The book totally inspired me. A lot of my readings on Agile from back in the day were very theoretical and high level at the same time. But Becoming Agile helps take you to the next level by going beyond the theory and into the nitty gritty practicality of employing the Agile approach. So it was very energizing having the game plan laid out in front of you, as well as the hurdles you'll encounter and how to overcome them."
-Tariq Ahmed, author of Flex 3 in Action
408 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2008
11 people are currently reading
172 people want to read
About the author
Greg Smith
1 bookA Senior Project Manager, ScrumMaster and an Agile college instructor.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 12, 2012
Great book on how to introduce agile practices into organisations. The book breathes agile, as it uses agile to become more agile. It supports using agile techniques to continuously improve your organisation, and deliver more value to customers.
I would recommend to anybody who is interested in applying agile, and who dares to eat his/her own dogfood by using agile techniques to become more agile.
I would recommend to anybody who is interested in applying agile, and who dares to eat his/her own dogfood by using agile techniques to become more agile.
March 23, 2011
Anyone looking to implement Agile within their organization could do worse than turning to this book for help. It has a solid plan and walks you through the many possible pitfalls to avoid while giving you the information you need to implement using best practices that will "stick".[return][return]I particularly enjoyed the approach of Adapting what exists with what already works for you - which is somewhat against what too many purists are preaching. I also believe in the adapting process since every business and every industry has their own constraints which need to be included in whatever format/ flavor you decide to introduce.[return][return]I found this to be a light refresher although there was nothing new for me. I have been running Agile Projects and Teams as well as doing some Coaching for almost 5 years now so I've come across most of what was discussed. [return][return]Still, it was a worthwhile read.
November 25, 2011
I read this book because I recently started a new job that uses Agile, and I wanted to come up to speed with the methodology as quickly as possible. Coming from a development background focused on variations of the waterfall method, this book was a good introduction to using Agile in real-world situations.
Instead of a book of theory, this book presents a fictional case study of a team moving to Agile processes. I liked how by doing that, the book shows how to bring Agile processes to a team in an evolutionary manner. In the real world, you just can't switch processes by snapping your fingers, and this book shows examples of how to explore new processes and bring them into your team in a way that makes sense.
Reading this book has helped me come up to speed with the new (to me) methodologies I'm using ant my new job. I'm not sure that it's the kind of book I'll be coming back to often, but it was definitely a good read to help me get up to speed.
Instead of a book of theory, this book presents a fictional case study of a team moving to Agile processes. I liked how by doing that, the book shows how to bring Agile processes to a team in an evolutionary manner. In the real world, you just can't switch processes by snapping your fingers, and this book shows examples of how to explore new processes and bring them into your team in a way that makes sense.
Reading this book has helped me come up to speed with the new (to me) methodologies I'm using ant my new job. I'm not sure that it's the kind of book I'll be coming back to often, but it was definitely a good read to help me get up to speed.
July 5, 2012
Interesting read that shows one step at a time, how can we make the transition from traditional methodologies - or software developments without any methodology at all - to agile. The book is very focused on Scrum and Extreme Programming, basing its examples on the case study consisting of the fictitious company "Acme Media". Leaving out some minor quirks, I highly recommend this book for the exposed content, and the ease with which certain concepts are explained; whereas other publications described those same concepts in much more complex ways.
June 27, 2017
Where most Agile books seem to start with either a blank sheet of paper or an environment which is already Agile, this one details how to implement Agile into a previously waterfall company.
It's a very useful and pragmatic book, recognising the difficulties and pain points of the transition, both for an initial pilot and then to roll out Agile processes to a wider audience.
Highly recommended for anyone who is either contemplating implementing an Agile process, or is already struggling with an implementation which isn't going terribly well.
It's a very useful and pragmatic book, recognising the difficulties and pain points of the transition, both for an initial pilot and then to roll out Agile processes to a wider audience.
Highly recommended for anyone who is either contemplating implementing an Agile process, or is already struggling with an implementation which isn't going terribly well.
March 29, 2014
Brilliant book. I have a feeling that I am going to keep this within easy reach for some time to come and it may end up being one of those rare books that I re-read. Takes agile concepts and makes them practical. I feel like I can now see a way forward as to how we make a start on becoming agile within my department and will be putting this into practice over the next few months.
March 30, 2013
Highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to transition from the traditional way of software engineering to a more agile way.
Read the book summary
at http://bookwormsrecos.blogspot.in/201...
Read the book summary
at http://bookwormsrecos.blogspot.in/201...
February 24, 2015
A bit dry, but really, what do you want from case studies in project management using the agile method?
December 4, 2014
ผู้ที่กำลังค้นหาหาแสงสว่างแห่งการทำงานที่ยั่งยืน... ผมแนะนำเล่มนี้
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews