Best Agile Project Management

Essential Scrum will provide every team member, manager, and executive with a common understanding of Scrum, a shared vocabulary they can use in applying it, and practical knowledge for deriving maximum value from it. Kenny does an excellent job of distilling the key tenets of the Scrum framework into a simple format with compelling visuals. I’ve seen Scrum continually misinterpreted and poorly implemented by big companies and tool vendors for more than ten years. Reading this book will help you get back to the basics and focus on what’s important.”. –Joe Balistrieri, Process Development Manager, Rockwell Automation. “Corporate IT leadership, which has been slow to embrace agile methods, would benefit immensely from giving a copy of this book to all of their project and delivery managers. “Kenny’s extensive experience as a consultant, trainer, and past managing director of the Scrum Alliance is evident in this book. The examples and descriptions are clear and vivid, and you’ll often find yourself asking a question just before the book addresses that very topic.”. –Johannes Brodwall, Principal Solution Architect, Steria Norway. “Kenny’s well-structured explanations have a clarity to them that echoes the sensibilities of Smalltalk–the development environment with which he worked for years and from which both Scrum and Extreme Programming were born. In the case of Kenny’s book, I very much believe the answer is ‘yes.’ Getting the benefit of different, experienced perspectives on commonly encountered and needed material is valuable. It dives into the details of how to become more agile through implementing Scrum processes, and it explains exactly how to break down complex projects into manageable initiatives (or ‘sprints’). Any organization that is seeking to evolve from a traditional waterfall approach toward a more agile methodology will find Essential Scrum a definitive guidebook for the journey.”. –Julia Frazier, product manager. If that isn’t enough, Kenny shares a range of his valuable personal insights and experiences that we can all certainly learn from.”. –Ilan Goldstein, Agile Solutions Manager, Reed Elsevier. “Kenny unpacks a wealth of wisdom and knowledge in Essential Scrum, providing valuable and comprehensive insights to the practical application of agile/Scrum.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I studies the book for my CSM and it was very helpful."
"This book covers all of the main concepts of scrum."
"This book is very good for understanding the Agile process in depth."
"Very clearly written and not too preachy."
"not a beginner book."
"This is a must have book for any product manager, development team, or software enthusiast interested in learning more about Scrum."
"Anyway, it's given me a good framework for understanding the development teams and processes I've found myself within (or been asked to organise!!)."
"Very comprehensive and great as a learning tool and on-going reference."

In Coaching Agile Teams, Lyssa Adkins gives agile coaches the insights they need to adopt this new mind-set and to guide teams to extraordinary performance in a re-energized work environment. Understanding what it takes to be a great agile coach Mastering all of the agile coach’s roles: teacher, mentor, problem solver, conflict navigator, and performance coach Creating an environment where self-organized, high-performance teams can emerge Coaching teams past cooperation and into full collaboration Evolving your leadership style as your team grows and changes Staying actively engaged without dominating your team and stunting its growth Recognizing failure, recovery, and success modes in your coaching Getting the most out of your own personal agile coaching journey. What I love about this book is how Lyssa brings practical advice to life by relating it to everyday experiences we all recognize. Every chapter offers a compelling blend of philosophy and action, framework and freedom, approach and avoidance, as any agile book should. The depth and quality of expertise that Lyssa sought, sampled, and sounded out along her own coaching journey have been synthesized in her own voice of experience.”. “ I remember the first time I met Lyssa at a Scrum gathering in Orlando, and realized very quickly how inspirational she would become in the agile community. This book encapsulates her thoughts and ideas into a fantastic literary work that, I believe, fills a void in our community.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Very useful book for doing agile."
"Well written; well organized; good info; clear learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter and review and the end."
"As an Agile Coach and ScrumMaster this guide has been a valuable tool and helped me to reinforce some techniques, training and tactics that I have learned throughout my years on the job."
"These roles, no less than the former project manager, are primarily leadership roles oriented around different foci: for the product owner, the clients and vision; for the scrum master, the product and team. Unfortunately, too often the product owner falls back into project management while the scrum master is relegated to that of a meeting organizer."
"I liked it because it covers the key roles played within the delivery method and allows the reader, especially a current project manager, to see how they may transition into place."
"I'm two years into my agile journey, and I found this book as a must read."
"The book presents insights into the role of an agile coach - for me it was a great opportunity to tune myself into the role of scrum master."
"I read this book in the summer of 2010 and it opened a new path of personal discovery and improvement for me."

DO YOU WANT FLEXIBILITY WITHIN THE TEAM AND GET THE BEST OUT OF YOUR EMPLOYEES? ✓ What agile project management is. ✓ Why it is important that leaders, including.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book turns into a vital learning and gives advantage to those who are well informed and have experience on how to use the proficient methods and utilize it."
"It is a good book for any apprentice to Agile Project Management, regardless of the possibility that you know about conventional project administration."
"This is a book without any real substance."
"Badly written, many typos, just a sales pitch for the PMI course."
"This book lacked any sort of instruction or application details."
"Poorly written."
"The book itself doesn't actually give a quick start introduction to anything except the basic idea behind Agile project management (which, I might add, you could easily discover on your own through a Google search) and then it proceeds to repeat the same generalized information for about 100 pages."
"I don't need to hear on every page why Agile is always superior to Traditional project management."
Best Lean Management

The missing manual on how to apply Lean Startup to build products that customers love The Lean Product Playbook is a practical guide to building products that customers love. This book was written by entrepreneur and Lean product expert Dan Olsen whose experience spans product management, UX design, coding, analytics, and marketing across a variety of products. Entrepreneurs, executives, product managers, designers, developers, marketers, analysts and anyone who is passionate about building great products will find The Lean Product Playbook an indispensable, hands-on resource. Determine your target customers Identify underserved customer needs Create a winning product strategy Define your minimum viable product (MVP) Design your MVP prototype Test your MVP with customers Iterate rapidly to achieve product-market fit. It also describes how to build your product using Agile development and how to use analytics to optimize your product and business.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Dan Olsen brings a great combination of theory and practical experience to the problem of product management. He's not trying to claim credit for making up a whole new theory; he supplies plenty of concepts of his own, but he's happy to include solid methodologies from other practitioners. The book would be a useful perspective for, say, CPG product managers, but its primary focus is certainly on software."
"Dan's approach utilizes a tactical / how to / real world focus that serves as a great "starter guide" to actually executing a product idea."
"READ this book if you want to learn or increase the required knowledge, skills, and experience of a great product manager."
"Dan's experience and his simple/clear outline have created a must read approach for any high-tech industry leader who wants to understand or lead Product Management practices in their organization."
"Being a Product Manager (non-technical) in a non tech domain (Insurance), I have found the book useful in relating my experiences to a more techie space."
"This is a well-organized and insightful read about the process behind creating lean products as well as how to apply the process."
"Great read for anybody working in Product Management."
"To book brings a lot of insights and real life examples which make it a real "playbook" that you can use with your own products or projects."
Best Total Quality Management

Eliminating wasted time and resources Building quality into workplace systems Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology Producing in small quantities Turning every employee into a qualitycontrol inspector. The result is an amazing business success story: steadily taking market share from price-cutting competitors, earning far more profit than any other automaker, and winning the praise of business leaders worldwide. Dr. Jeffrey Liker, a renowned authority on Toyota's Lean methods, explains how you can adopt these principles--known as the "Toyota Production System" or "Lean Production"--to improve the speed of your business processes, improve product and service quality, and cut costs, no matter what your industry. You'll learn how Toyota fosters employee involvement at all levels, discover the difference between traditional process improvement and Toyota's Lean improvement, and learn why companies often think they are Lean--but aren't. The Toyota Way, explain's Toyota's unique approach to Lean--the 14 management principles and philosophy that drive Toyota's quality and efficiency-obsessed culture. The book is full of examples of the 14 fundamental principles at work in the Toyota culture, and how these principles create a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"There is a good mix of examples of how the Toyota way is followed and how to implement."
"The original story by the original people - buy this for the "lean production" method."
"Being from a mechanical and industrial engineering, this book brought out many changes in my work life and personal life."
"Toyota not only lead the way for manufacturing but for building a company and culture of continuous self improvement for all aspects of the company."
"It's mostly a history book but it's a really neat one all the same."
"I listened to the audiobook while driving along with reading the book whenever I was stationary such as home and work."
"A treasure chest, chuck full of powerful concepts, explained simply, clearly, and concisely: sums it up for me!"
Best Six Sigma Quality Management

The most complete, current guide to Six Sigma “Best practices in Six Sigma are continuously evolving, just as Six Sigma itself evolved from earlier best practices in quality improvement. Two online quizzes for Six Sigma certification, one for Green Belt candidates and one for Black Belt candidates Links to five videos that walk you through specific processes, such as Minitab functions, statistical process control, and how to read a Pareto chart Fully incorporated coverage of Lean methodologies. Building the responsive Six Sigma organization Recognizing and capitalizing on opportunity Data-driven management Maximizing resources Project management using DMAIC and DMADV The define phase The measure phase Process behavior charts Measurement systems evaluation The analyze phase The improve/design phase The control/verify phase. His online courses and training materials are available through select colleges and universities worldwide, as well as through Quality America’s website. In addition to a number of published articles in quality improvement, Keller has authored Six Sigma Demystified (McGraw-Hill, 2005) and Statistical Process Control Demystified (McGraw-Hill, 2011), and co-authored (with Pyzdek) The Handbook for Quality Management , Second Edition (McGraw-Hill, 2011) and the third and fourth editions of The Six Sigma Handbook .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Online content at [...] appears to be no longer available."
"one of best in the field of Six Sigma no problems and this version (Overseas) has no errors/ bad bindings or missing pages/misprints etc...Saved me a lot of cash buying this version...awesome."
"Learning Six Sigma for work, this book is overwhelming but a good source for information."
"This book has a lot of info."
"Very comprehensive and detailed."
"If there is one negative regarding the book is that the foreign printed book used slightly thinner and cheaper paper."
"Needed that to pass my tests."
"Needed this to take a six sigma course for my Green Belt certification."
Best Quality Control

Eliminating wasted time and resources Building quality into workplace systems Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology Producing in small quantities Turning every employee into a qualitycontrol inspector. The result is an amazing business success story: steadily taking market share from price-cutting competitors, earning far more profit than any other automaker, and winning the praise of business leaders worldwide. Dr. Jeffrey Liker, a renowned authority on Toyota's Lean methods, explains how you can adopt these principles--known as the "Toyota Production System" or "Lean Production"--to improve the speed of your business processes, improve product and service quality, and cut costs, no matter what your industry. You'll learn how Toyota fosters employee involvement at all levels, discover the difference between traditional process improvement and Toyota's Lean improvement, and learn why companies often think they are Lean--but aren't. The Toyota Way, explain's Toyota's unique approach to Lean--the 14 management principles and philosophy that drive Toyota's quality and efficiency-obsessed culture. The book is full of examples of the 14 fundamental principles at work in the Toyota culture, and how these principles create a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"There is a good mix of examples of how the Toyota way is followed and how to implement."
"The original story by the original people - buy this for the "lean production" method."
"Being from a mechanical and industrial engineering, this book brought out many changes in my work life and personal life."
"Toyota not only lead the way for manufacturing but for building a company and culture of continuous self improvement for all aspects of the company."
"It's mostly a history book but it's a really neat one all the same."
"I listened to the audiobook while driving along with reading the book whenever I was stationary such as home and work."
"A treasure chest, chuck full of powerful concepts, explained simply, clearly, and concisely: sums it up for me!"