Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Large, Multisite, and Offshore Product Development with Large-Scale Scrum

by Craig Larman, Bas Vodde

Lean and Agile Development for Large-Scale Key Practices for Sustainable Competitive Success Increasingly, large product-development organizations are turning to lean thinking, agile principles and practices, and large-scale Scrum to sustainably and quickly deliver value and innovation. Drawing on their long experience leading and guiding lean and agile adoptions for large, multisite, and offshore product development, internationally recognized consultant and best-selling author Craig Larman and former leader of the agile transformation at Nokia Networks Bas Vodde share the key action tools needed for success. Coverage includes In a competitive environment that demands ever-faster cycle times and greater innovation, the practices inspired by lean thinking and agile principles are ever-more relevant. Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development will help people realize a lean enterprise―and deliver on the significant benefits of agility. In addition to the action tools in this text, see the companion book Scaling Lean & Agile Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum for complementary foundation tools.

Genres: Management, Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Software, Technology, Programming

624 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2010

Reviews

[Agile Kindergarten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been using this weighty book as a resource for about a year, now. After having read most of it in this manner, I've gone back and started reading it again from page 1. It's that type of book. But perhaps more valuable than the many suggestions (and warnings), is the attitude. You try things as "experiments," not as solutions. Things work, things don't work, you learn, and you get better. The amazing thing is that with an attitude that accepts uncertainty and failure, you ultimately become much more successful.... and happy.

[Sicofonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a follow-up of Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum, by the same authors. The content of the book is organized as a series of "experiments" (or tips from the authors) that agile practitioners can try when applying lean and agile principles at scale. These experiments cover many different areas, namely: testing, product management, coordination, planning, requirements, design and architecture, offshore, multisite and contracts to name a few.

I read this massive book cover to cover, right after reading the companion book Scaling Lean & Agile Development, even though I was skeptical about the content due to its age, I was positively impressed by it. I even came across one experiment that gave me something to try for a problem I currently have at hand. Having said that, there are some chapters that have aged worse than others. For example, the one about continuous integration... rare is the company that does not use Git as a source control tool these days, or a company that doesn't have an automated build.

I would have given this book 5 stars if it wasn't because some content has aged a bit. Other than that, it is a book that I will happily keep in my personal library for future references. The breadth and depth of it is really remarkable.

[Kaspars Koo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked how well structured and practical it was.

[Martín Salías · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of ideas and against common biases

The book is structured around concepts and series of experiments, with many of those exploring both sides of things, like "Try ABC" and "Avoid ABC", pointing out to the context in which the same strategy can be good or bad, or anything in the middle.
Far from recipes or dogma, the book explores the complexity of developing products at scale, and encourages thinking in systems.

[Duane Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I have taken training in Scrum and SAFe, I thought it was time to dig into The mind of the cofounder of LeSS. Great to know that I’m on the right track. I bought this book primarily to see how Craig addresses multi site resources. There are some great suggestions for experiments in your agile practice. Technical leaders please take note on culture.

[Ryan Morton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great set of experiments for applying agile values to large-scale (and small) product development teams & organizations. This is 1 of 2 companion books, where this one contains experiments and the other more focused on organizational philosophy.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an amazing collection of practices within lean & agile (and Scrum). While targeting scaling, these are valuable for single site users too. These are very practical slices from many projects with many applicable components. The wide array of experiments that Craig and Bas have collected here is of tremendous value, and done in a way that is not imposing their solutions on any other context. The strong message is to facilitate the teams to consider what works for them, whether it be these ideas, variants, or something else entirely. These often include WHY they an idea was successful or not, which greatly helps in understanding how it might fit in a given context. If you're serious about using lean and agile concepts, I highly recommend this book.

[Sergey Shishkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was (and still am) skeptical of large-scale software development when I picked this book. After reading it I liked the book very much. The authors truly adhere to the values and principles of lean and agile thinking. The book contains a solid set of evolutionary practices to try and/or avoid in a large-scale context. I only wish the book would urge readers to challenge the size of the organization more often.

Overall this is a very practical book worth reading.

[Torben Rasmussen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it. Lots of well-argumented practices based on experience. There are parts of the book which discussed details that are not generally applicable for product-development, but they usually serve to illustrate more general practices. Also read the companion book on organisational tools.

[Marek · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the companion book I expected a little bit more from this book. It contains a lot of good tips but it is annoyingly repetitive and also contains a lot of obvious stuff. I recommend reading the companion book if you want to pick just one.

[Viet Thao · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first profession-related book that I have ever completed. A good book that explains the fundamentals thoroughly and details step-by-step execution for readers to follow. Quite exciting to see all this techniques being applied to the workplace.

[Damir Prusac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part 2 of "Scaling Lean and Agile..." For a serious deployment within enterprises. Recommended!