Agile Management | NOOP.NL

Reward for Book Reviewers

UPDATE June 21: The first winner is Yves Hanoulle! Thank you Yves for writing a review of my book on Amazon.com.
UPDATE June 27: The second winner is Petri Heiramo. Thanks Petri for writing a review of my book on Amazon.co.uk.
UPDATE July 4: The third winner is Franco Martinig. Thanks Franco for writing a review of my book on Software Development Books. 

I have seen 23 reviews of the Management 3.0 book so far. I found them on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Barnes & Noble, GoodReads.com, Software Results, Software Development Books, Optimize, ABC-thinkBIG, and Herding Cats.

The average rating is 4.3 (out of 5), which makes me a happy author. :-)

However, I would be a very happy author if a few more people published a review of my book.

That’s why I will reward 3 book reviewers with $200 worth of Amazon books.

I know it is important to incentivize behavior (= writing a proper review) and not outcome (= a certain number of words on a web page), therefore I reserve the right to evaluate if a certain text is indeed a proper review. Merely the words “This book is so awesome, I want to make love to it” (though I understand it could be true) does not count as a proper review!

Important: I’m not asking for higher ratings, just more reviews. If you write a text of 300 words describing all the reasons why Management 3.0 must have been written by the son of the devil, your text does count as a valid review! (Hint: I think the word “system” is mentioned in the book 666 times.)

Three times I will randomly select a winner, on June 20, June 27 and July 4. The earlier you publish your review the more often you have a chance to win $200 worth of books (including cost of transport). And if you wrote a review (it doesn't matter where), or if you still intend to do this, then please add a link to this blog post so I know where to find it.

OK, I did my part. Now it’s time for you to start writing… :-)

p.s. If your book review is among the ones referred to in this post, you don't have to tell me. You automatically have a chance to be a winner in the next 3 weeks.

Blog Post #500

This is my 500th blog post.

I didn’t expect to make it this far when I wrote the first blog post more than 3 years ago. There can be only one reason why I am able to keep up writing on this blog.

I like doing it.

There’s no denying it. When you feel you should do something, but you suspect that you won’t be able to keep it up, change the activity so that you enjoy it. Align the activity with some of your intrinsic desires.

For me they are:

• Acceptance: I enjoy it when readers appreciate my ideas.
• Curiosity: I love researching stuff and publishing the results.
• Relatedness: For an introvert a blog is a safe way to socialize.
• Idealism: I feel I have a mission, and I will stick to it.
• Status: I enjoy the growing readership and social network.
• Independence: This blog is my own autonomous project.
• Competence: Compliments make me feel competent and happy.

For me this blog satisfies no less than seven of the 10 intrinsic desires. That is a lot! It is exactly the kind of reinforcement you need when you start a difficult, challenging project. If the work is not able to satisfy you as a person, then why would you do it?

Some statistics:

I wrote blog post #400 exactly one year ago. Readership has grown to 1240 page views (915 visits) per day, and 5600 RSS feed subscribers.

The most popular posts I wrote since blog post 400 were:

1. Top 100 Agile Books
2. Simplicity: A New Model
3. The Customer Value Problem: Ditch the Value Stream!
4. ALE Gathering at XP2011
5. How to Make a Presentation (part 1)
6. Top 15 Systems Thinking Books
7. Cross-Functional Teams Don’t Come Free
8. The Best Used Books in My Library
9. How to Deal with Unknown Unknowns
10. Delegation Poker (Game Description)

There! I wrote another blog post about writing blog posts. And again I feel good at satisfying a whole bunch of intrinsic desires. See how easy it is?

Thank you all for reading.

You rock.

New Blog Design

I didn’t like my old blog layout anymore. So I designed a brand new one.

Gone are the stupid Google ads, which barely generated revenue anyway.

Gone is the Amazon widget, which was just plain ugly.

Gone are the various lists of old articles, which did little more than cluttering up the user interface.

And gone is the list of cool social media icons, which will continue to be cool on a separate page.

What remains are the latest blog posts.

That’s it.

Oh, and a new colorful design. inspired by my own book case.

Hope you like it.

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The Best Used Books in My Library

Last week I finished the last minor boring details of my book. One of my many mind-numbing tasks was to cross-check all references (in the body text) with the bibliography (at the end.) Yes, I know. I should have used a way to automate this before I started writing. But I didn’t. Boohoo. Shame and pity on me.

Anyway, that’s how I got to understand (for the first time) which books I have actually used most often during the last 1.5 years. And that’s how I noticed that there’s a big difference between liking a book and actually using it.

So… these are the 24 books I have used most often, while writing my own book. Maybe you find some of them as interesting (and useful) as I did.

references	book
15	Waldrop, M. Complexity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
13	Stacey, Ralph D. et.al. Complexity and Management. New York: Routledge, 2000 (a).
11	Cohn, Mike. Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum. Reading: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2009.
9	Augustine, Sanjiv. Managing Agile Projects. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, 2005.
9	Gleick, James. Chaos. Harmondsworth Eng.: Penguin, 1987.
9	Kelly, Kevin. Out of Control. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1994.
8	Arrow, Holly et.al. Small Groups as Complex Systems. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2000.
8	Corning, Peter. Nature's Magic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
8	Miller, John H. and Scott E. Page. Complex Adaptive Systems. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
7	DeMarco, Tom and Timothy Lister. Peopleware: 2nd Edition. New York: Dorset House Pub, 1999.
7	Highsmith, Jim. Agile Project Management: Second Edition. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2009.
7	Poppendieck, Mary et.al. Leading Lean Software Development. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2009.
7	Thomas, Kenneth. Intrinsic Motivation at Work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2000.
7	Weinberg, Gerald. Quality Software Management. New York: Dorset House Pub, 1992.
6	Hackman, J. Leading Teams. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
6	Lewin, Roger and Birute Regine. Weaving Complexity and Business. Mason: Texere, 2001.
6	Mitchell, Melanie. Complexity. City: Oxford U Pr, N Y, 2009.
6	Poppendieck, Mary et.al. Implementing Lean Software Development. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2007.
6	Rothman, Johanna and Esther Derby. Behind Closed Doors. Raleigh: Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2005.
5	Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point. Boston: Back Bay Books, 2002.
5	Lewin, Roger. Complexity: A Guided Tour. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
5	Reinertsen, Donald. Managing the Design Factory. New York: Free Press, 1997.
5	Solé, Ricard et.al. Signs of Life. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
5	Testa, Louis. Growing Software. San Francisco: No Starch Press, 2009.

Interestingly enough, I find the list a bit surprising. I had thought other favorite books of mine would have ended up on top. But apparently, some books are only appealing and memorable, while others are more useful and durable.

If you want to see my full list 215 references to books and articles, I’m afraid you will have to wait just a little while. It looks like my own book will be in the stores by the end of December. :)

(picture by luiginter)

Jurgen is an experienced author, trainer, and speaker. Why don’t you hire him to add some spice to your company event or seminar?

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Re-launch of the Management 3.0 Website

Hurray!

Today is the “official” re-launch of the companion website for my book:

management30.com

The site launches with a fine post called The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease by Michael = FAIL, by Michael Cardus.

My followers on Twitter have noticed my struggles with (and rants about) Ning, the platform where my site was previously hosted.

After a plea for help on this blog several people suggested that I try Squarespace. And I did.

My oh my, what a relief!

Squarespace turned out to be exactly what I needed… Very easy content management, a modern GUI, a very flexible page architecture, many cool options for blogs, widgets, and membership, awesome styling features, and… super-fast customer support! (And now that I have started promoting them, they received $38.5M in funding. Go figure!)

In short, it was exactly what I had hoped Ning would be half a year ago, but wasn’t.

I have dedicated the front page of the management30.com website to anyone who wants to share an article, a guest post, an opinion, a book release, or a review.

Read the guidelines and contact me if you like to be in the spotlights!

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Tell People a Story

Telling people a Story is one of the six SUCCES principles for getting a message across to an audience. This was described by Chip and Dan Heath in their great book Made to Stick. (The other principles are Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, and Emotions.)

I recently asked readers to give me some last suggestions for my book, which is nearly finished. And I got a number of very good ideas.

But the one I liked best was the suggestion from Jens Schauder:

I'd really like a chapter “a day in the life of an agile manager.” It would be written like a short story: A nice conflict in the team to start the morning. The manager tries to find out what is going on, talks to people, provides ideas... with cross references to the different chapters of the book.

If I have sufficient time left at the end of this month I will try to write an appendix with a story. Because storytelling is the most powerful way of getting your messages across.

And for this suggestion Jens Schauder has earned himself a $189 Amazon gift card.

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Win a $189 Amazon Gift Certificate

At last!

I have finished writing the last chapters of my book and I sent them to my publisher and reviewers yesterday.

Pffffff…

Now I will spend a month processing feedback from reviewers, polishing a thousand little details, and covering my ass in all possible ways.

And I can use your help!

Please tell me… Which topic must be addressed in my book about managing agile teams?

What most important question should be answered in my Management 3.0 book?

Email me, or add your question to the comments section. I have a $189 Amazon gift certificate available for the best question that would lead me to add another paragraph or two to my book.

I still have a month to add (a few) important topics. Let me know what you would look for in the responsibilities of an agile manager.

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Please Help Me Find a New Platform

I want to migrate my management30.com website to another platform. Ning has disappointed me by being a pain in the usability backside, and by announcing “exciting new changes” in the form of a 500% increase of their monthly price.

Can you help me find a new platform?

Here are the must-have requirements. I won’t consider a platform if it doesn’t have all of these features…

1. A blog posts feature, allowing me to post articles to the website.
2. A content pages feature, allowing me to create separate pages.
3. A comments feature for both blog posts and pages.
4. A free HTML text feature, that allows me to create page parts with HTML.
5. A great HTML editor that doesn’t feel like it was built during that last ice age (like the one on Ning).
6. Custom CSS so that I can design the site in the style I want.
7. Modern look-and-feel of the platform. I don’t want clunky GUI controls that give me flashbacks to the 90’s.
8. Good spam control!!
9. Hosted in the cloud. I don’t want local a installation.
10. Support for a custom domain, in this case management30.com.

The next list contains the should-haves. If one or two features are lacking, that’s OK. But if too many are lacking, then don’t bother suggesting it to me.

1. A moderation feature, which enables other people to submit articles (under their name!) and allows me to accept or reject (or edit!) them.
2. A discussion/forum feature, allowing people to discuss various topics.
3. A news feed feature, allowing me to publish one or more RSS feeds.
4. An image upload feature in the HTML editor.
5. A document upload/attachment feature, so that the site can host PDF’s and other documents.
6. Good image positioning features, allowing me to place images to the left or right of a blog post/text. (Ning does this badly.)
7. Integration with Google Analytics.
8. Social network integration of the comments system with Twitter, Facebook, and others. (Not supported on Ning.)
9. A membership feature, so that I know which people are interested in/contributors to the website.
10. Login with Twitter and Facebook, so that people don’t have to register on my site.

And the last ones are the nice-to-haves. I know most system don’t have these. But hey, you can't stop me dreaming…

1. A groups feature that allows me to create separate groups/pages for reviewers, etc.
2. Built-in Facebook fanpage integration.
3. Built-in LinkedIn group integration.
4. Support for migration of content from Ning.
5. Preferably, it shouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg.

Thanks for helping me choose!

p.s. I have a very interesting Amazon gift certificate available for you, if you have a really, really good suggestion for me!

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And the Winner Is...

Several weeks ago I decided to have a little contest. I need some good marketing ideas for my upcoming book, and I promised my readers to give away a $250.34 Amazon gift certificate for the idea that I found most inspiring.

I received many dozens of marketing ideas, from 34 different people. A good number of those ideas involved giving away books for free, which I'm afraid wasn't very useful, as my contract allows me to have about 20 books to give away. (The volume of ideas for free giveaways probably would have required me to have 20 crates of books.)

Fortunately, there were also plenty of ideas that were more realistic (and more affordable) including: easter eggs in the book, Facebook fanpages, video trailers, free ebook extracts, sneak previews, podcasts, local book tours, more contests, merchandise, and much more.

But there was one idea, by Radu Davidescu, that clearly stood out for me: It was about people getting together and organizing small events, in order to have me come over and do a free talk about the book. The requirement would be that all participants would need to buy/own my book, and somehow the attendees would have to find a sponsor for my travel costs. (My own contribution would be my free time and lots of autographs...)

I have no idea whether I can actually implement Radu's suggestion. But I liked it best because it is about self-organization and self-management.

Thanks Radu, and all other contributors, for many fine ideas. I have only one month left of writing to do, and then I will start concentrating on the marketing effort. It's going to be very exciting!

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Blog Post #400

It’s becoming sort of a tradition for me to reflect on my blog writing at every 100th post. And so here it is, the 400th blog post!

Since January 1 of this year this blog has had almost 110,000 visits, and 170,000 page views. That is 750 visits and 1160 page views per day on average (with a couple of peaks for some wildly popular blog posts).

 

As usual, most of the popular posts on my blog were top lists:

1. Top 150 Management & Leadership Blogs
2. Top 200 Blogs for Developers
3. Social Media Blogs Top 200

But fortunately, the readers of this blog also seem to like some of the other content. These were the most popular posts since blog post #300:

1. Traits That Make a Good Development Manager (guest post)
2. Some Day Kanban Will Fail 75% of the Time
3. ScrumButs Are the Best Part of Scrum
4. The Danger of Lean: Ignoring Social Complexity
5. 10 Questions to Ask Your New Manager
6. In Defense of Scrum (Please Stop Pissing on It)
7. Management 3.0: The Era of Complexity

It is interesting to note that the most popular blog post was a guest post, written by Alan Skorkin (thank you Alan!). And most of the other ones were a little controversial (for some people) which is proof that controversy pays. ;)

Furthermore, this blog has 4,800 feed subscribers (last time: 4,000), a Google Rank of 5 (last time: 4), an Alexa Traffic Rank of 182,902 (last time: 167,512) and a Technorati Authority of 460 (last time: 138). The number of Twitter followers now stands at 2605 (last time: 1588). So, except for the Alexa rating, all of them have been going in the right direction. Which is nice.

Thank you all for sticking around, and having faith that one day I’ll write something that’s actually useful. ;)

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Latest, greatest and favoritest posts: Blog Post #300  Blog Post #200 Blog Post #100