Reviews for Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products (Agile Software Development)

1. Insightful but lacks examples

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2008

   Like a few of the other books I've read on Agile methods, this one is very wordy and reiterates the same points over and over again, with a slightly different emphasis each time. This is largely because Agile principles are quite simple and many authors seem to rely on "padding" in order to make a full book's worth.
   
   Whilst agile principles are quite simple, they require much discipline and skill to implement. Highsmith successfully conveys this as he discusses the human factors involved in managing teams of skilled people creating inovative products. The idea of reliable vs repeatable process is nicely expored which exposes many home truths that technical people have known for a long time, but their managers seem to overlook!
   
   I must confess to getting a bit bored by the middle as Highsmith seemed to redescribe agile practices such as the product backlog, features and iterations but each with a kind of obscure slant that suggests he's proffering up something new; he is not.
   
   If you're new to Agile and looking for a how-to-get-started, then this is not it. The lack of examples and non-specific narrative will leave you wondering what's it's all about. Instead I'd recommend Ken Schwaber's Project Management with Scrum. However, if you're an Agile pioneer in your organisation or you know agile and are looking to develop your agile awareness, then this makes a good - albeit long - read.