Succeeding with OKRs in Agile: How to create & deliver objectives & key results for teams

by Allan Kelly, Mike Burrows (Foreword)

Get aligned, work seamlessly and hit goals efficiently - what are you waiting for?

“This book is full of great insights and guidance around OKRs backed by multiple real examples that will be helpful in a number of domains" Nicolas Brown, Agile Coach

OKRs are about goals bigger than the next story, or even epic. They prioritise purpose and strategy over the ever looming, high maintenance backlogs we all know too well.

OKRs are important to agile teams because they deal with the big things, they inspire forward thinking, encourage engage senior leaders, and help debug strategy.

Acclaimed author Allan Kelly describes why you should use OKRs, how to write them successfully, how to set measurable KRs, execute against OKRs in an agile environment to deliver outcomes, and the pitfalls and problems to avoid so you can deliver your outcomes.

Unlike other books, this is not designed to sell you OKRs, Allan reveals decades of honest, hands on experience working with agile teams adopting OKRs, day-by-day, sprint-by-sprint, quarter-by-quarter.

"Easy read, super useful book for my current context at work right now!" @c_combe on Twitter

"I especially like the honest portrayal of top-down MBO OKR-setting and its problems. And providing tips on how to go about using OKRs in a different way." @anttiki

"I recommend heartily and have done so openly on the book seller’s site - brilliant, balanced and lived experience and feedback from Allan" @rj_number_one

"Initially, I was thinking to join some OKR training but honestly felt this book is good enough to get one on the right path!" @ProdScrumMaster

"Allan's writing is perfect for busy managers who need to set objectives and form initiatives that satisfy diverse stakeholders. Overall, a wonderfully concise and easy to read guide to using OKRs. Highly recommended." Russ Lewis, CxO coach

“Having read other books that argue strongly for OKRs as a panacea to achieve a high-performing organization, the perspectives here from Allan are balanced, informed by lived experience and provide patterns and anti-patterns to watch for. Insightful and powerful” Richard James, Accenture

"This is absolutely brilliant book. If you really wants to learn more regarding OKR in Agile and other important stuff related to it you must read this book. It's truly a master piece. Author had provided excellent examples and explained everything in a detailed regarding OKR that anyone can easily understand. I really enjoyed reading this book and found it very interesting and informative. I strongly recommend to read this book."
- Amazon Review - N Mehta

305 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 29, 2023

About the author

Allan Kelly has held just about every job in the software world, from system admin to development manager by way of programmer and product manager. Today he works helping teams adopt and deepen Agile practices, and writing far too much. He specialises in working with software product companies and aligning products and processes with company strategy.

He is the author of three books: "Xanpan - reflections on agile and software development" (https://leanpub.com/xanpan), "Business Patterns for Software Developers" and “Changing Software Development: Learning to be Agile”; the originator of Retrospective Dialogue Sheets (http://www.dialoguesheets.com), a regular conference speaker and frequent contributor to journals.

More about Allan at http://www.allankelly.net and on Twitter as @allankellynet (http://twitter.com/allankellynet).