Better Agile: How every software team can spend less time firefighting and have more fun building great software

Is your team stretched to the limit, with no time to tackle technical debt or try out new ways of working?

Do you wish that you could focus your energy on creating amazing software rather than endlessly firefighting? Better Agile condenses years of experience into a short, practical guide, so that you can quickly make agile work for you.

How to get the full benefits of agile fast, even if you tried before and didn’t get the results you wanted

Perhaps you have already tried to adopt an agile method or technique, hoping it would fix these problems. But maybe you found that it didn’t give you the benefits you were expecting, or solve the challenges you are facing.

This book provides you with the solution: it’s a short guide, loaded with clear explanations and practical examples, that will help you to quickly identify and implement improvements that will work for your team. It covers:

• The three essential secrets of how to make agile work for you. Rather than giving you a dry history of agile and its benefits, these three secrets cut through the buzzwords and hype to explain the fundamental principles that are key to every successful agile implementation. By understanding them, you will immediately be able to spot the best ways to boost your team’s agility and implement them fast.
• 10-minute overviews of Scrum and Kanban. These are the most popular agile development methods, and these quick overviews will show you how to achieve the best results with them.
• The 10 mistakes you need to avoid. Save yourself time and stress by learning from other people’s mistakes rather than your own, giving you more time to actually implement improvements.
• A simple way to decide between Scrum and Kanban. In just a few pages, learn how you can make the best choice for your situation, including the option of using both!
• A 5-minute agility self-assessment. This simple but powerful questionnaire immediately tells you the quick-wins you can implement without needing a huge budget or buy-in from your management, which means you can get started straightaway.
• 55 of the best coaching questions you can ask yourself or your team to drive change. The easiest way to inspire change is by asking the right questions rather than trying to tell people what to do. With these questions you can make change happen without feeling like you are fighting against the rest of your company.

4 other things this book will show you

• The single easiest way you can reduce lead times and deliver new features faster
• The most effective way you can boost your team’s productivity
• 3 quick and easy steps to ensure all work is effectively prioritised
• 4 simple tips to make sure that improvements actually get implemented

20+ years of experience condensed into one small book

David has 20+ years of experience in tech, during which he has worked with hundreds of software engineers, development managers, agile coaches and executives. He has led and coached teams, lectured at universities and spoken at agile events. With this experience he has seen first-hand what works and creates positive outcomes, as well as the common pitfalls and obstacles that teams face. This book condenses that experience into the essential information you need to make agile work better for your team, no matter what your starting point.