Category Archives: Books

General Agile Reading List

Colleagues and clients are often asking what agile books they should read or have in their corporate library.  Here’s a list of books I’ve read over the years that I thought would be good to start with.

The following book I believe is foundational for anyone interested in agile:

  • eXtreme Programming eXplained by Kent Beck

Here are some books for those seeking to be ScrumMasters:

  • Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber
  • Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn

Here are some good books for Managers as well as ScrumMasters:

  • Managing Agile Projects by Sanjiv Augustine
  • Implementing Lean Software Development by Mary and Tom Poppendieck

For people wanting to read more about agile requirements:

  • User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn
  • Agile Software Requirements by Dean Leffingwell (not as much about requirements though, more about Scaled Agile)

For people wanting to read more about testing:

  • Test-Driven Development by Example by Kent Beck
  • Agile Testing by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory

For people wanting to read more about retrospectives:

  • Project Retrospectives by Norm Kerth
  • Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen
  • The Retrospective Handbook by Patrick Kua

For people wanting to read more about coaching teams:

  • Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins

For Organizational Change Management:

  • Leading Change by John Kotter

Happy reading!!!  And remember, don’t just “Do Agile,” “Be Agile!”

If you have other books that you feel should be added please reply below.

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Reading List

After successfully completing my Scaled Agile Framework Program Consultant (SPC) certification at the beginning of the year, I’ve been asked several times by colleagues and friends what they should read if they were going to pursue this certification from the Scaled Agile Academy.

Here are my recommendations.

First I recommend that you go to http://www.scaledagileframework.com website and peruse the information that is publicly available there.  The benefit of this site is that it’s constantly being updated with new content.

The following books I made sure I was very comfortable with:

  • Scaling Software Agility by Dean Leffingwell
  • Agile Software Requirements by Dean Leffingwell

I read Scaling Software Agility first and then I read Agile Software Requirements.  I found this to be very interesting reading it in this order because I could see the thoughts and ideas mature as I moved between the two books.

I also read:

  • The Principles of Product Development Flow by Donald Reinersten (this book and the author are referenced a good deal by Dean
  • Implementing Lean Software Development by Poppendieck
  • Scaling Lean & Agile Development by Larman & Vodke

For agile background (if you haven’t read these, I recommend the following):

  • Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck
  • Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber
  • Test-Driven Development by Kent Beck

Good luck with the test!

And remember, don’t just “Do Agile,” “Be Agile!”