Lessons in Agile Management by David J. Anderson

Holiday reading this year was David Anderson's "Road to Kanban" book. I had a similar initial reaction to this book as Malcolm Gladwell's "What the Dog Saw" - it's a compilation of previously published work (in this case from Anderson's blog) and if I didn't read it the first time why should I read it now?! In fact both books won me round very quickly. There's a lot of new work invested in "Lessons in Agile Management", in grouping related articles and commenting from a contemporary perspective on the developments in the agile community. There are also just valuable and insightful articles on many aspects of software development and management that I found both refreshing and original. Kanban is a relatively new kid on the block when it comes to agile frameworks - the major incumbent Scrum is consequently suspicious and negative towards it - but as this book shows, its roots are deep and arguably more secure than many views of agility. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a broader understanding of the thinking behind Kanban and the principles it's built on. You will get a more balanced view than is possible from the texts that just focus on the methods artifacts and techniques.