5 comments about Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (Pragmatic Programmers).

1. First, let me say that I have read many books off the Pragmatic Bookshelf. Many of the best books I read during 2006 were published by these guys. With that said, this is by far the worst book I have read in recent memory. It is very simplistic and not very engaging at all. It's like a Fischer Price introduction to management. I did read most of it, but only because I was trapped on an airplane to Norway. Incidently, I left the book on the plane. It wasn't worth the shelf space in my library.



2. Having gone through a recent re-org that calls itself "new" 6 months after the fact, a 2-hour reading of this book was able to bullet point a good many ways the new management chain is screwing up. Nothing in this book is actually "secret" (it's all pragmatic) and very little happens "behind closed doors" (by the time you're there, something's gone wrong), but it's a good primer to read for a new manager or a good primer to pummel a pointy-haired boss with when they're doing nothing right. The fictionalized case study running through the book didn't appeal to me, but the drawn out points and sidebars were well (that is "concisely") written.



3. This is an excellent work that guided me though my first formal management experience. The book weaves its lessons into a story which helped you to understand how to apply what you learned. Like many important books, it explains some simple rules that can be difficult to execute in practice. The downside of reading this book is that you may realized that you're not being managed well (or have not been in the past) and you can no longer live in blissful ignorance. All technical managers at all levels should have read a copy of this book. The section on having one on ones by itself is worth the price.



4. I am very skeptical of most business improvement books and one size fits all methodologies, but I can tell you that this book absolutely shines as a glint of hope in the sea of business improvement noise. As opposed to trying to force a given technique that will apply to everyone in every business, this book provides some very "real" examples that exist in the software development world and some very simple concepts and techniques that can be used. This book is not written like an academic book of problems and solutions, but more of a story based book on a "real world" scenario, which truly solidifies the pragmatic name of the publisher. This pragmatic approach makes the book very easy to read, understand, and ultimately use. I think if you use at least one or two of the techniques presented in this book such as One-on-Ones and Big Visual Charts (BVCs) that the book will have more than paid for itself in terms of the time you will have spent reading it and of course the money!



5. Practical approach to management. This book shows the application of good management practices using real-world scenarios. It is easy to read and written in such a way that you can instantly start applying its concepts in your environment.

5 comments about ActionScript 3.0 Bible.

1. I am an experienced programmer who knows Java very well, and I was looking to learn ActionScript 3 so as to be able to build Flash applications. I found this book very easy to read and to understand, and the examples easy to put in practice. Sure, there are a few errors here and there (including in the code, which may confound a truly inexperienced programmer, but also make him think a bit to find the errors... a good exercise), but the overall tone is nice. I took my time, going through about one chapter a day (having other things to do as well), so I finished the book in about a month. Someone dedicated can probably read the whole book and play with all the examples in about a week. I especially liked the fact that the book introduces the reader to almost all Flash APIs: graphics, animation, user interface, XML parsing, file management, networking, image processing, printing, JavaScript interaction, etc. It does not go in depth into most APIs, but by the time you're done reading the book, you have a great overall picture of what you can do with Flash, and you can now explore the APIs in depth by yourself to build more complex projects (using the very comprehensive integrated help that comes with Flash CS3 Professional). You know where to look. I took notes while reading the book every time I learned a new concept, and now I use a highlighter to cross individual notes out as I put the concept in practice into my code and memorize it for good. I hope to have crossed out all my notes in the coming weeks. Anyway, one month after having finished the book, I consider myself quite familiar with ActionScript 3, and I have been writing some good code. So I would say that I am very happy that I purchased this book.



2. The Flash 8 Actionscript bible was an amazing reference, and covered just about every feature. This book is nothing like that. The examples are ok, but the whole way it is written and the index in particular feels kind of rushed. I need a good reference book!



3. It's surprising that nobody has published a simple language reference for ActionScript 3.0 yet; until that day comes, this book is my most often visited reference when programming Flash projects.
   
   Great job by the authors.
   
   My only complaint: The examples are good, but would be of much more use if they also included classpaths (e.g., the correct "import" statement) within them. As they are, I often find myself searching Adobe's online references for the correct package/class to import before trying them out.



4. In my opinion there are three things to look for in a Computer Language book. Exhaustive reference, truly illustrative examples and applicable conventions and design patterns.
   
   Unfortunately this book failed on all counts, so I rarely open it anymore.
   
   I also have "Essential Actionscript 3" and "Actionscript 3 Cookbook" in my library. I use these a lot more frequently.



5. Contradictory to most "Bibles" this book is not a thorough reference guide, meaning it does not break down every function or object with all of the property and methods. However, the examples are very clear and it's an excellent book to learn what you need and why you want it about Actionscript. I really enjoyed the simple explanations and for each topic I think just the right amount of information is presented without overloading you or leaving wondering what you're missing. Given that there is a wealth of detailed "reference" material at Adobe's site and built into Flex Builder, I think this book is an excellent complement to those materials. I recommend this book to anyone with a little programming experience looking to add ActionScript to their knowledgebase.

5 comments about Testing Computer Software, 2nd Edition.

1. I think that Cem Kaner's book was perfect 20 years ago. Right now it's very funny in most chapters. For example we have a whole chapter for printer testing. I don't think that more than 1% of programmers are working now directly with hardware. Also, we have many examples for computers with 640Kb or RAM. Many examples and test types are expired. I was confused why editors didn't remove them or change. Anyway, I recommend to read it as an overview. Moreover, this book is more like reference, not a book for reading. So, buy it and have in your library.



2. The book was very helpful for me as a beginning QA Specialist. I would recommend it for background and foundational info.



3. Practical software testing from practicing software testers. Much of the time, books are written with an attempt for the author to launch some new iteration of their career and so forth thereby confusing the application, message and usefulness of the book in question. This book is very simple. It discusses, problem, approach, solution, experience and commentary. Though never as wonderful as being mentored first-hand by an expert, this book is practical enough to leave you with near first-hand experience of how to think through 'what to test', 'how', 'to what extent', etc. No book will solve your testing problem. This book simply takes you on the path of though evolution towards doing such.



4. I was trying to become a better project manager in our small and new software firm. We had lots of problems, and especially with the QA of our product. This book helped me (and still does) understand the approach and the idea of testing software.
   We managed to greatly improve the quality assurance process. Even before this book I knew testing is fundamental to the software development, but now I now "why" and most important "how".



5. The QA department where I work already has one of these books, which I actually read cover to cover a ways back. I decided to get one for myself to keep as a handy reference when I am not physically on the job, but thinking of it and planning out my testing. This is a must have for anyone in or interested in the QA/Software Testing field.

5 comments about Code (Dv- Undefined).

1. I picked up back on Ch.4 after the bus station stop. Very well done, Charles. A labour of love, indeed, very well crafted. I still don't know if Thevenin's theorem is for pure calculation purposes of being. The two parallel puzzle bc. Exit



2. This book is precisely what the doctor ordered; truly, there is no other book that even comes close to this one, in terms of actually capturing the most elegant, explicit essence of what the computer actually is, and does.
   
   This is the standard that all other computer books must now live up to, and I'm sure that no small number of rival authors are a little green with envy. After all, nine years after its original publication in 1999, this book is #27,439 on Amazon... a score that easily outranks the majority of newer books!
   
   It's a classic. I only hope Petzold does updated and, even, illustrated versions of this book. It is the "Cosmos" and "A Brief History of Time" of the computer industry.



3. I can't say enough good things about this book. I've recommended it to friends of mine coming from all levels of understanding. Few times have I been as enthusiastic about a book as I have about this one.
   
   CODE is perfect except for the end. For 3/4 of the book, everything is meticulously and wonderfully detailed. However, in the last quarter, Petzold explicitly focuses on limiting his book to a certain number of pages and gives us a whirlwind tour through some really interesting topics. I'd like to see another 1 or 2 books explaining these to the same degree of detail as all of the early chapters.



4. This book is a true creation of art. It is a must have for anyone who wants to understand how computers work at the lowest of the levels. It starts off with "What is electricity?" and builds up on the design of a truly working modern computer.
   
   Plus, you don't have to be an electrical engineer or have any knowledge on electronics, since the author assumes no previous knowledge on the field. No one but Charles Petzold could have ever written such an amazing master creation aimed at both the knowledgeable individual and the total newbie.
   
   Charles Petzold's writing style is delightful and attractive; it couldn't have been any better. Also as I read further into the bowels of the system, eventually I got these thrilling sensations like "No way anyone could have ever thought about this" or "No way this is possible". The way the text is put together allows for such moments of amazement.
   
   The book is loaded with diagrams. Every single step into the woods is clearly explained and illustrated.



5. This is the best book i've found on this subject. Reading CODE is like sitting in a well-taught class on the fundamentals of signals and computing.

5 comments about Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 in VB 2008: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional).

1. This is an excellent book for experienced programmers, such as me, wanting in-depth knowledge they can apply on the job. This book is not, however, for novice programmers as the book's title suggests. For example, in Chapter 4 the succinct explanation of "Storing Information in the List" for the Currency Converter will I suspect completely confuse the inexperienced programmer.
   
   You will learn what you need to know to be an effective working ASP.NET developer--the coverage is through.
   
   The book provides extensive references to supplementary material such as www.w3schools.com/xhtml which the working developer needs to know but is not directly germane to the coverage of ASP.NET 3.5.
   
   The Note and Tip sections are very useful in describing ways to solve problems just discussed or to provide alternate ways to do what was just discussed.
   
   The author provides solutions to problems that other writers just don't. For example, instead of just saying that using session state is not scalable and stopping there McDonald offers a way to make session state much more scalable and shows you how. Another example would be overlapping exception handlers. This is just the kind of additional information a working professional needs to implement a more responsive and better website.
   
   The code examples are clear and they work. Almost every chapter has ready-to-run code examples all of which work in IE (I haven't tested in FF).
   
   The only downsides I found in the book are: Inexperienced programmers will get lost. I did find one typo in the code printed in the book on page 198 but not in the downloadable code samples. Also, it would have been helpful to have the URLs for the Pubs and Northwind database downloads from Microsoft instead of just referring to a readme.txt file I didn't have.
   
   I have being doing serious ASP.NET development work since VS 2003 was released and have five other ASP.NET books NONE of which are as useful as this book--it is the best one in my library. If you are an experienced programmer wanting in-depth knowledge of ASP.NET get this book . If you are not an experienced programmer or have no knowledge of ASP.NET get another book this book is probably not for you.



2. THIS BOOK IS A COMPLETE SCAM! It should have been called Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 with VB 2005 (NOT ASP.NET 3.5 with VB 2008). Why? because there is no 3.5/2008 specific content in this book what-so-ever! I could not believe this while i was reading.
   
   He spends a chapter discussing the VB language and syntax, non of which contain the new language features or changes in the VB language, all examples will work in VB 2005 without issue. In fact, there is not even a mention of LINQ, which is the most important part of the new VB 2008 (VB9) language. In fact, he goes further by giving us chapters and chapters on accessing data using outdated data access methods and SQL statements, non of which is necesssary anymore thanks to LINQ (WHICH HE MENTIONS NOTHING ABOUT).
   
   It talks about the old, outdated controls of ASP.NET 2.0 which are no longer used or necessary due to the newer and much better controls available in asp.net 3.5 (in which he mentions NOTHING about).
   
   I still can't believe apress would allow something like this to go through. This really is a book about ASP.NET 2.0 and VB 2005 ONLY. There really is nothing (NOTHING, not even one bit) of anything related to exclusive ASP.NET 3.5 or VB 2008 features and content!!!!
   
   What a damn disappointment, when you are reading a book and realize you've practically read the exact same book 3 years ago and there is nothing new in it!
   
   Thankfully I didn't buy it and downloaded a copy off the internet to review it before buying it.
   
   THIS IS A COMPLETE SCAM, DO NOT BUY IT.



3. I have to say this is one of the first technical books that I actually enjoyed reading. It provides a more solid understanding of what ASP.NET is and what it encompasses for someone who has learned it on the job but never really took a class on it.
   
   It's well written and I learned some cool stuff. The sections that stuck out to me were the first chapter on what exactly the .NET Framework is, the section detailing the page life cycle and the chapter on ASP.NET AJAX. Great job Matthew.



4. I'm a database developer that dabbles in application development. I've worked with every version of Visual Basic released by Microsoft, every version of "Classic" ASP, and ASP.NET 1.0/1.1 (Sorry, no .NET 2.0).
   
   I needed a book that would give me the basics of ASP.NET 3.5 using VB so that I could get up to speed for a new project. This book was perfect!
   
   Too many other books have either completely abandoned VB and are now strictly for C# developers, or, give lip service to Visual Basic and "offer" to let you download VB examples from their website. Not much help to those of us that aren't C# gurus. (Ever try converting C pointer reference syntax to something comparable in VB? Not so much...)
   
   This book starts with a short history of .NET, gives you a couple chapters of VB.NET basics (syntax/control structures/classes/objects/etc.), and then jumps into building web pages. I used (FREE) Visual Web EXPRESS 2008 as my platform and never missed an example in the book.
   
   I spent about an hour or two a day mulling over the different chapters and within a week or so was pumping out web pages filled with bound and unbound data from a MS SQL 2005 database.
   
   While this isn't a monkey-see-monkey-do (step-by-step) book, it is full of code snippets and detailed explanations of how things work. If you need, you can always download the full source code for all the examples and then step through the code using the debug feature of VW 2008 Express.
   
   Considering the very limited number of Visual Basic books on ASP.NET 3.5, this book is a MUST HAVE for anyone/everyone looking to move up from previous versions of .NET (And a good starting point for .NET newbies). It is a fixture in my cube for use as a quick reference to answer the too often question of "How did I do that before..."
   
   The only reason I didn't give it fives stars was because it's coverage of Ajax was so sparse (one quick/short chapter). But, considering that Ajax is a language/architecture in itself, it really wouldn't be fair to expect too much coverage in a "Beginner's" book.



5. Very thorough and easy to understand presentation of ASP.NET 3.5. I would recommend this book to beginners as well as those who already use ASP.NET and would like information about some of the differences between versions.

5 comments about Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: From Novice to Professional).

1. I'm an old school VB programmer who has decided to freshen up my CV by adding Python to my skills. This book provided me with a great kick start to the wonderful world of Python and what it brings to the dynamic scripting languages table.
   The book is written so that its easy enough to grasp the concepts if you're a newbie (or old dog like me) without sounding condescending.
   Its worth a look if you are contemplating making the leap into Python.



2. This is an awesome book. I have lots of programming experience and dreaded learning another computer language as I probably know over 15 by now but this book really made learning Python fun and enjoyable. It reminded me of my early days in programming, in grade school, and how much enjoyed programming then and now. Penetration Tester's scripting language of choice.



3. After not touching any sort of programming for upwards of four years I picked up this book on a whim. Though it may not be as exhaustively thorough with respect to basics as some of the other beginners python books, I found that it still explains things well enough. It also does a really good job of surveying some of most useful modules and their specifics. It is far from an all inclusive book, however it is supposed to be an introductory book and by those standards it is excellent. I find that I still reference this book often while I am programming.



4. This is a very good Python Book. Simple for the novice and, at the same time, complete for the medium skill programmer.
   Some chapter are long and with many information that probably aren't interesting for all readers.
   However, it's a very good book that teach Python and explain to the reader some basic concepts of good programming and computer science. A must to read.
   
   Passo all'italiano. Un buon libro, facile da leggere per i principianti e allo stesso tempo completo per i programmatori mediamente avanzati.
   Alcuni capitoli sono un po' lunghi, con molte informazioni teoriche che forse possono annoiare alcuni lettori.
   Tuttavia, è un ottimo libro su Python, che riesce a spiegare al lettore anche alcuni concetti basilari di buona programmazione. Per chi vuole diventare un buon programmatore Python, un must da leggere.



5. Together with the same author's on-line tutorials, this book is a good introduction. Again, the main concepts and useful ideas are introduced in the first few chapters, but if you know nothing about programming this may become hard to follow after a while.
   The author suggests the reader to stop when it's becoming hard to follow, practice writing programs, and then come back to the book when familiarized with more programming. In a way, I find this very honest. I think this is much better than the "... for dummies" competition. The book is completed by 10 practical projects showing mainly how to implement Python for GUI, communication, file managing, and so on... I have yet to find a good introductory book on Python for science, but I have found several on-line documents complementing the book.
   
   Altogether, I recommend this for readers with some knowledge in Java/Perl and object-oriented programming languages.

5 comments about More About Software Requirements: Thorny Issues and Practical Advice.

1. Karl Wiegers is the person I recommend all my employees to read. This book is even better than 'Software Requirements, 2nd Edition' by Karl. He gives practical advises together with theory and important references. This book could be used as a tutorial for requirements engineers. One of the best books in this subject area.



2. This book addresses specific topics related with software requirements and the section "10 cosmic truths about software requirements" alone is well worth the read. The definitive book on software requirements remains the "Software Requirements" by the same author.



3. This is an excellent book which discusses the practical aspects of requirements engineering. Is a good companion to the original Weigers book.



4. I found it easy to read and very quickly full of my own highlighted pages and sticky notes for reference. This book will be in my must reread shelf at my desk. Since gathering requirements is a huge part of any quality product this book will help you get your hands around the task.



5. This book is easier to read than the book that it is the sequel to and has specific topics. They may or may not add value to your life, but does add value to the original book to get a little more insight into how real life works on software projects.

5 comments about Pro T-SQL 2005 Programmer's Guide (Expert's Voice).

1. I really enjoyed this book. It presents the essential new features of SQL 2005 in a well written easy to read manner. If you are a SQL Developer and want to get up to speed quickly on SQL Server 2005 this is the book for you.
   
   The chapter on encryption is excellent and worth the price of the book by itself.



2. This book is well written with clear examples and excellent coverage of T-SQL. Great to read cover to cover but also very useful as a reference source. I highly recommend it.



3. This book is is easy to read and does an excellent job of introducing the new features and tools in T-SQL 2005. The book covers all the new features of SQL 2005 very well and I was especially impressed with the section on encryption.



4. Pro T SQL Programmers Guide is an excellent resource to jump start your SQL Server 2005 development efforts. Michael Coles presents clear, concise examples that will guide the reader from T-SQL fundamentals to the use of the new xml data type,http endpoints, sqlclr programming, encryption and more. A clear read with great practical examples.
   
   
   
   I would highly recommend this book as a reference and guide book for t-sql developers, dba's and development professionals



5. Short Summary:
   Pro T-SQL 2005 Programmer's Guide book examines SQL Server 2005 T-SQL from a developer's perspective. It covers a wide range of developer-specific topics in SQL Server 2005. This book covers many newly introduced topics in depth. This book is written as a practical and useful guide to help database developers who mainly deals with T-SQL. This book is really hit the spot with appropriate .NET code at few places where needed. This book assumes a basic knowledge of SQL but it is really easy for new beginners developers to understand and advanced developers to enjoy further reading.
   
   Detailed Summary:
   One thing I really liked about this book is that it can be either read cover to cover, or it can be used as a reference guide for one particular topic. Index of this book is extremely well organized and aids to find the right topic very quickly. Books is structure is many chapters and each chapter justifies the chapters with good details and proper amount of examples.
   
   Each chapter has excellent advice and knowledge and filled with sample code (available online). The book is targeted specifically at SQL Server 2005 and the innovative ways to code T-SQL, new functions and commands. If is very easy to get started with this book and it immerses in comprehensive reading in no time. This book addresses many details and comparisons with T-SQL in very organized way. The examples are in very accurate and useful as well sufficient to targeted topics. This book addresses many of the real world issues with examples, discussions and solutions.
   
   This book start with providing a brief history of T-SQL and the ANSI SQL standards. SQLCMD and SQL Server Management Studio are new tools to explore SQL Server 2005 and are covered in depth in beginning of the book. Chapters which covers Common Table Expressions (CTEs), new datatypes, operators, keywords, functions, and control of flows are really interesting and with necessary explanation. Readers of my blog are very well aware of my interests in Error handling and debugging. Interesting enough for me there is one whole chapter dedicated to that. The regular T-SQL concepts which I write a lot about Stored Procedure, Triggers and Dynamic SQL each have their own chapter. One thing many T-SQL book does not cover in depth is XML, XQuery and XPath which are properly discussed and their importance is explained properly. Last three chapter of the book which covers SQLCLR, .NET Client Programming and HTTP Endpoints requires the Microsoft .NET FrameWork 2.0, as it contains some code which are written in VB and C#.
   
   One thing which I always liked in any database book is, use of sample database AdventureWorks. I strongly believe that all the example should be independent from previous examples and should use default database. If you have not installed default database AdventureWorks, you can get its latest location by searching in my blog SQLAuthority.com. All the script of examples are available to download online. No book is free from the errors and website for this book have errata list, which is surprisingly very small.
   
   I will list few tips from book which interested me. This will give brief idea how good this book is.
   
   "TABLESAMPLE always returns an approximate number of rows because of the way it samples data. The required percentage is the number of data pages SQL Server retreves in full to fulfill your TABLESAMPLE request. The number of rows returned by TABLESAMPLE will often be slightly less, or greater, than the specified amount."
   
   "Anytime you use dynamic SQL, make sure that you take precautions against SQL injection, that is, malicious SQL Code being inserted into your SQL statements. In this instance we're using the QUOTENAME function to quote the column names being dynamically generated to help avoid SQL injection problems."
   
   Following one example really caught my eyes while reading the book. It seems Author accurately described the situation and put his suggestion regarding syntax.
   "The ANSI SQL:2003 standard includes a MERGE statement that performs the same function as the upsert type of SP. The prerelease versions of SQL Server 2005 included the MERGE statement. Though it was well-publicized during the prerelease period, the MERGE statement was unceremoniously dropped from the production version. We can only hope that Microsoft brings it back sometime in the near future."
   Good news is Microsoft have included the Authors request in future version of SQL Server. SQL Server 2008 CTP 4 has included MERGE Keyword.
   
   Rating: 4 and 1/2 stars
   
   In Summary, A book for every developer who want to take full advantage of the power of T-SQL on SQL Server 2005.
   
   Pinal Dave
   Principal Database Administrator
   (blog.sqlauthority.com)

1 comments about Beginning Groovy and Grails: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional).

1. I come from a strong Django background and when I recently inherited the role of Lead Developer I had the power to make decisions for a small start-up. There were two requirements for the product the customer needed: database independence and it must be based on a java framework. Additionally, the team would be fairly small and we would have less than 4 month to deploy. Needless to say I felt Grails would make my life livable.
   
   This book does a wonderful job introducing you to the Grails framework. To be honest, its hard to pick up Grails based on the documentation out on the net unless you already have experience with a similar framework. I had several members on my team that failed miserably with Grails who came from a Spring/Struts background. However, those who had Rails and Django experience could hit the ground running.
   
   If this book came out earlier, I'm sure the 'other' developers could've had less headaches. The book holds you hand and introduces you to the simplicity this technology offers. Give Grails a shot and get this book! Yes, the framework and language isn't quite mature yet and does have a number of 'gotchas.' But with its glowing community I can see it easily improve and become a very popular choice in the job market.

5 comments about Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit (The Agile Software Development Series).

1. Think lean, be lean, but don't copy manufacturing verbatim. An excellent foundation for understanding basic lean concepts and how they do and do not cross-pollinate in the software evolution world. Follow this reading up with the second book in this series by Poppendieck.. "From concept to cash".
   
   This is a stellar book.



2. This book is excellent. Both Mary and Tom compares the software development with other fields of production. I've to say that if the steps planted in this book are followed seriously, your company will be great.



3. I found nothing concrete or useful in this book. It is loaded with interesting anecdotes but they're vague with regard to execution and follow through. The success stories generally end with the release date. Never mind the poor slobs who had to maintain whatever was slapped together at the last minute.



4. It's pretty much all been said by previous reviewers but this one is worth another accolade. As a CIO with over 20 years in software engineering, I've just about read it all, seen it all, tried it all. As a result I'm a big believer in Lean/Agile, and this is the best introduction I've come across. It's a nice, practical mix of principles and practices and touches on all the right themes.
   
   A previous reviewer laments the authors' distaste for CMMI and PMI. For instance:
   
   "Between PMI and CMM certification programs, a heavy emphasis on process definition and detailed, front-end planning seemed to dominate everyone's perception of best practices...spending a lot of time and getting the requirements right upfront was the way to do things `right the first time'...CMM, in its eagerness to standardize process, leaves out the heart of discovery and innovation..." Spot on.
   
   As a PMP with CMMI experience, I couldn't agree more with the Poppendiecks' observations and concerns. They go on to say, "This is not to say that CMM and PMI are bad, but only that for anyone who has lived through the lean revolution, they tend to give the wrong flavor to a software development program." That "wrong flavor" is called "waterfall."
   
   Of course there are Level 5 Agile shops out there, and the author's recognize that "CMM is not supposed to dictate approach, but only assess..." But here's the problem: "CMM programs...may standardize on less than ideal practices...they may be better implemented separate from--and after--process improvements."
   
   This book is a must read for software development managers and other business execs pursuing the promise of an Agile company (vs. IT shop). I'll definitely be passing out a few copies!



5. Shortly after leading my first Six Sigma process improvement project, which involved my constructing of software to automate client business processes, I came across this book by the Poppendiecks. At the time, the integration of Lean and Six Sigma seemed to be picking up steam, and rather than reading a general text on Lean, getting a better understanding of how to apply Lean to software development seemed to make sense. In reading through this book, although Lean and Six Sigma (now often called Lean Six Sigma) share some commonalities, it became quickly apparent that Lean shares much in common with practices set into motion by the agile software development movement. The introduction to this text lists seven Lean principles as applied to software development: eliminating waste, amplifying learning, deciding as late as possible, delivering as fast as possible, empowering the team, building integrity in, and seeing the whole. In addition, it is also indicated that the Lean principles, respectively, do not mean throwing away all documentation, continuously changing one's mind, procrastinating, rushing and delivering sloppy work, abandoning leadership, performing big upfront design, or ignoring the details. It is interesting that the authors wait until the last chapter to disclose what the authors deem as instructions and a warranty card. The authors caution the reader that "one team's prescription is another team's poison", one should "not arbitrarily adopt practices that work in other organizations", and "the right amount of features analysis and traceability depends on the nature of the system and the probability of change" just as "the right amount of user interaction design depends on the users of the system, their background, and how they might use the system". These cautionary notes present a reminder of what the Lean principles applied to software development are all about. The authors also briefly discuss such areas as "special work environments" like the government, where skeptics to agile methods are common. I would like to see the Poppendiecks (or someone else) write an entire book on special work environments. En route to the closing chapter, the authors present 22 tools to help customize the right agile practices for any particular environment. Much of the material will probably already be familiar to agile practitioners, but a substantial amount of the discussion is on Lean. Most of the diagrams presented are well done, although some are a bit amateurish and do not aid the associated discussions. Small case studies that are provided throughout the text are beneficial (although sometimes minimally so) in helping the reader understand the problem space as well as apply the tools. The first few chapters are well suited for an introduction to Lean, and the book in general is recommended for those interested in exploring how Lean might be incorporated into software development.