Agile Management for Software Engineering : Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results, Portable Documents

"This book does a good job of describing the methods employed at Sprintpcs.com ... over 250 people practicing Feature Driven Development and reporting their progress to me at the monthly operations review." --Scott B. Relf, Chief Marketing Officer, Sprint PCS "A tremendous contribution to the literature in the field. This should be required reading for all development teams going forward." --John F. Yuzdepski, VP & GM, Openwave Systems A breakthrough approach to managing agile software development, Agile methods might just be the alternative to outsourcing. However, agile development must scale in scope and discipline to be acceptable in the boardrooms of the Fortune 1000. In Agile Management for Software Engineering, David J. Anderson shows managers how to apply management science to gain the full business benefits of agility through application of the focused approach taught by Eli Goldratt in his Theory of Constraints. Whether you're using XP, Scrum, FDD, or another agile approach, you'll learn how to develop management discipline for all phases of the engineering process, implement realistic financial and production metrics, and focus on building software that delivers maximum customer value and outstanding business results.Coverage includes: Making the business case for agile methods: practical tools and disciplines How to choose an agile method for your next project Breakthrough application of Critical Chain Project Management and constraint-driven control of the flow of value Defines the four new roles for the agile manager in software projects-- and competitive IT organizations Whether you're a development manager, project manager, team leader, or senior IT executive, this book will help you achieve all four of your most urgent challenges: lower cost, faster delivery, improved quality, and focused alignment with the business. The author shows managers how to apply management science to gain the full business benefits of agility through application of the focused approach taught by Eli Goldratt in his Theory of constraints. Whether you're using XP, Scrum, FDD, or another agile approach, you'll learn how to develop management discipline for all phases of the engineering process, implement realistic financial and production metrics, and focus on building software that delivers maximum customer value and outstanding business results. Coverage includes: Making the business case for agile methods: practical tools and disciplines; How to choose an agile method for your next project; Breakthrough application of critical chain project management and constraint-driven control of the flow of value; Defines the four new roles for the agile manager in software projects -- and competitive IT organizations. Whether you're a development manager, project manager, team leader, or senior IT executive, this book will help you achieve all four of your most urgent challenges: lower cost, faster delivery, improved quality, and focused alignment with the business Theories for agile management Management accounting for systems TOC in software production Dealing with uncertainty Software production metrics Agile project management Agile project planning The agile manager's new work Agile development management Software resource planning An agile maturity model Setting the governing rules Staffing decisions Operations review Agile management in the IT department Agile product management Financial metrics for software services The business benefit of agile methods Production metrics for traditional methods Financial metrics in traditional methods Production metrics in FDD Project management with FDD FDD process elements explained Financial metrics in FDD Production metrics in extreme programming XP process elements explained Financial metrics in XP Production metrics in Scrum Scrum process elements explained RAD process elements explained Devil's advocacy States of control and reducing variation Comparison of production metrics Applicability of agile methods. This book is certainly about software development management, but it is also a book about business. Managers can no longer afford to discuss these two topics independently. This book is meant to eliminate the seat-of-the-pants intuition and rough approximations that have been far too prevalent in software development management. The growing popularity of agile methods has shown that a healthy balance between strict process and individual flexibility can be achieved. David Anderson takes it a step farther, and explains how the healthy balance of agility can help businesses become more profitable. The result is a book that will allow managers to foster teams that produce better software, less expensively, on time, and with fewer defects. I don't mind buying books from Amazon, but the only thing about Amazon is they charge you shipping charges, why can't they just ship all the books at one time instead if they are in stock! I know it is only a estimate but we put the estimate on the purchase orders, and when we receive each item, there is a charge for each shipment! When we have to reconcile the orders, the amount is different then what is on the purchase order. So we have to do an amendment to either increase or decrease the order! Also if the books are instock at the time I order, why do they send messages saying "Your order is delayed and will be shipped at a later date, what is up with that if they are in stock! Ordering from Amazon is a pain! This text explains how agile software development methods produce better business results. It aims to help managers combat the biggest business complaints about software (for example, 'late', 'doesn't deliver as promised', 'over-budget' and so forth)