Who Is Agile? A book on LeanPub - No Fluff Just Stuff

Who Is Agile? A book on LeanPub

Posted by: Johanna Rothman on February 14, 2012

Yves Hanoulle has edited a book, called Who Is agile? Full disclosure: I am in the book.

I love this book. Not because I am in it, but because of all the back-stories, the pictures, and the links. And, oh my goodness, the links.

I did not expect to love this book. I expected to like the book. I expected to learn something. I expected to entertain myself for an hour or two. After all, how interesting could it be? I’d been reading the Who Is… series on Yves’ blog. Yes, I’d missed a couple of people, but really. Put all the blog posts together, and have a book? So Yves edited, and added more links and edited and added more links, and maybe I’d missed a few people, but really, a book? How compelling could that be?

Well, you should read this book. You will understand how agile has become as strong as it is, not because of the signatories of the manifesto, but because of those of us who use agile in our day-to-day lives. How we live it and use it in our teams and our work. Read about Lisa Crispin and how she paired with Janet Gregory.

Read about Bob Marshall, Nicole Belilos, George Dinwiddie, and Jutta Eckstein. And those are just the people I feel as if I already know. Look at their beautiful pictures. Read their back-stories. Get to know them as people. And then, click on all of the links.

What is truly valuable about this book is the links Yves has collected for each of us Who Is people. There are links to each person’s web site, books, blog, videos, interesting stories, the list goes on. The links are what makes the book. Yves has created a collection unlike anything else I have seen.

Yves used Leanpub to create the book, which means you buy it now, and as he updates it, you get the updated version. What’s not to love? You get a wonderful book now, you keep getting a wonderful book, you read lots of different perspectives on how we all got to be agilists, and, you get all of these links.

Buy the book. Smile as you read it. Sigh as you read the one “Who was.” Laugh at the funny parts. Enjoy it. And, thank Yves for all the work. The links, my goodness, the links.

Johanna Rothman

About Johanna Rothman

Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” offers frank advice for your tough problems. She helps leaders and teams learn to see simple and reasonable things that might work. Equipped with that knowledge, they can decide how to adapt their product development.

With her trademark practicality and humor, Johanna is the author of 18 books about many aspects of product development. She’s written these books:

  • Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility
  • Become a Successful Independent Consultant
  • Free Your Inner Nonfiction Writer
  • Modern Management Made Easy series: Practical Ways to Manage Yourself; Practical Ways to Lead and Serve (Manage) Others; Practical Ways to Lead an Innovative Organization
  • Write a Conference Proposal the Conference Wants and Accepts
  • From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams (with Mark Kilby)
  • Create Your Successful Agile Project: Collaborate, Measure, Estimate, Deliver
  • Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization
  • Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects, 2nd edition
  • Project Portfolio Tips: Twelve Ideas for Focusing on the Work You Need to Start & Finish
  • Diving for Hidden Treasures: Finding the Value in Your Project Portfolio (with Jutta Eckstein)
  • Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Project Schedule or Cost
  • Manage Your Job Search
  • Hiring Geeks That Fit
  • The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
  • Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (with Esther Derby)

In addition to articles and columns on various sites, Johanna writes the Managing Product Development blog on her website, jrothman.com, as well as a personal blog on createadaptablelife.com.

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