Customer Reviews

Agile Adoption Patterns: A Roadmap to Organizational Success

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There are many things I like about this book, not the least of which is that it is true to the "spirit" of patterns and agile -- it does not promise easy answers or quick fixes but offers down-to-earth advice based on experience. The patterns do a good job of capturing that experience but the way the patterns are written, with "threads" of stories throughout is not only convincing but enjoyable reading. I like being able to follow the real-life adventures of the same developers who struggle to solve real problems across several patterns. I also like the case study in Chapter 46 where a real company with real problems does a pretty good job of moving forward, but it's not a "and they all lived happily ever after" scenario. We're overwhelmed with books and advice these days, so it's nice to see someone who offers help and hope but not hype!

Elssamadisy's book is in tough, tough company. How can you compete in the same space as amazing works like Subramaniam and Hunt's Practices of an Agile Developer or Shore and Warden's The Art of Agile Development? Those are tough, tough classics to go against when trying to explain how teams/companies should adopt agile practices.

Amr pulls it off by organizing his material in a fresh form which I found very useful. He hits many of the same points as other works on Agile (smells, process, team empowerment, practices, etc.), but emphasizes the business value of each point. For example, his chapter on User Story lays out the case that user stories are simple documents in their initial draft. The value comes from developers having conversations to flesh out the details and implementation of the story. Product utility is improved, and development costs are reduced.

This same approach is carried on throughout the book, making it very clear what specific benefits you can find from each practice. Additionally, each practice or chapter follows a nice recipe-like format. Start off with business value, move on to a sketch describing the practice, follow up with context of the practice and forces impacting it, then look to why you'd want the particular practice, adoption details, and a bit on the practice's cons and variations.

The book starts out with a high-level overview of agile, then moves on to specific patterns/practices. Each pattern is a short, separate chapter with about 40 patterns in total. The style of the book is clear, concise, and it's nicely produced.

Another great point about the book is Elssamadisy's ongoing assertion that you don't need to adopt all of the practices. Rather, find the pain points you have in your environment and look to implement only the patterns which will ease that pain. This pragmatic approach to agile adoption is a refreshing view in a world where some Agile fanatics insist you must adopt every single practice or you're not doing Agile. (A fanaticism I emphatically disagree with.)

Overall I think it's a solid addition to the Agile section of your bookshelf. It's not a replacement for things like Subramaniam's or Shore's works; it's a solid addition to them.

There are many books about the theories and practices that are encompassed in the word "agile". Quite a number of them are quite good in terms of addressing the specific practices and how to implement them. It you want to learn Scrum or XP, there is no shortage of books and how-to materials, along with plenty of advice.

This book, however, addresses the goal of agile adoption from a new perspective - patterns of behavior and thought, and how to specifically leverage and/or address them. It addresses this from the organizational/team perspective, rather than the individual perspective, which makes it particularly valuable for those of us who are working in an organizational transformation/agile adoption environment.

While it might seem that "patterns" would appeal to the techies in its audience, my experience is that Amr has managed to frame his work in terms and concepts that are readily understood by all. This book is readily digestible by non-technical managers and staff, as well as by those of us who have spent/currently spend our time in a technology environment. It is not necessary to understand what design patterns are, for instance, to understand the patterns in this book.

For those who are either anticipating agile adoption or actively engaged in it, or even those who are struggling with what seems to be a failed adoption, this book is required reading. The way in which the patterns are presented, the clear and pragmatic exercises described to help work through them, and the suggestions for ways to approach it all are just what's needed.

Real world, pragmatic, easy to read, and easy to digest - that's what this book is all about.

It will be on my desk and heavily thumbed in short order.

There are plenty of excellent books available that explain agile practices. What has been missing until now is the guidance to apply them. Amr's approach to achieving agile practices is filling a need that has been felt by many for several years now. Amr takes an excellent approach to identifying the best means of applying agile techniques based on a combination of business needs and project pains. This approach stays focused on delivering business value to the enterprise as they move towards agile practices.

Amr has an excellent writing style that is both concise and entertaining delivering information in a manner that can be absorbed in bite-sized chunks and applied as needed based on the initial needs assessment. After identifying the business needs or pains the best agile practices to deliver the value or reduce the pain are described in a manner that determines which practices will deliver the best value to meet your identified needs.

I highly recommend that you pick up this book if you are either planning to adopt agile practices, struggling to adopt agile practices or are looking to enhance the agile practices that you currently employ. Well done Amr.

I picked this book up about a month ago before kicking off a critical assessment project and it's paid for itself many times over. The numerous tomes in our field often provide hyperbole rather than pragmatic advice you can put into practice. This book helped me not only understand key agile concepts, but explained them in a way that made clear the business value they deliver.

I'd highly recommend this book for anyone seeking to learn more about implementing agile in an organization still relying on the traditional waterfall method.

If you understand Agile and your team adopts all the practices with success overnight, then this book is not for you. If like the rest of us you have an understanding of Agile, but need some help to go beyond a few superficial practices, then buy the book and use it!

Amr starts with the fundamentals of Agile, from its deep roots in team dynamics and individual attitudes, and then guide you towards building a strategy for Agile adoption - not a generic strategy, but one that is adequate for your team and your objectives. Once the strategy is defined, we can put the Agile patterns to good use, one at a time, in good order, while minding the impacts, consequences and pitfalls.

This was exactly the book I was looking for. For my longer review, please refer to: http://freedomforideas.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/agile-adoption-patterns-1-2-3/.

Proven patterns for succeeding with Agile in an organization are presented in a series of case studies and hands-on exercises in Agile Adoption Patterns: a Roadmap to Organizational Success. Here are the most common stumbling points teams face in implementing strategy, along with tips on how to teach, train, and bring customers on board to an agile environment. Any Agile project manager will find this an excellent series of tips, making this perfect for software engineering collections.

Agile adoption is not a technical problem - it's about people, organizations, processes, and group and individual psychology. Every manager considering allowing or (better yet) championing Agile is already concerned that their technical team is disconnected in some way from what their business needs. Amr uses patterns as the way to communicate business information to technical people in a very logical, analytical way but still manages to capture the management wisdom that needs to be imparted. He walks the team through exercises to identify the business need that will drive the need for change, then identify the symptoms of problems, and finally he lays out a clear path to the practices that should be adopted first to get early wins and build a positive cycle of success.

Very accessible to all audiences in a business that need to understand Agile - I consider it a must read for any organization that I am going to coach.

Well written and practical way to introduce agile to organizations based on business value. I love the diagrams that list business values (time to market, quality to market, product lifetime) and the corresponding patterns that realize that value most dramatically.

I have used this approach with clients to frame the goals of their agile adoption in terms of what business value they hoped to achieve in their context. This is much more effective than discussions about adopting Agile practices with a vague or non-specific goal to be 100% Agile, 100% Scrum or what have you. The discussion around patterns that support their goals helps to create a strategey for adoption rather than a blanket set of practices to be applied regardless of context or what the client hopes to achieve. This belongs in the bookshelf of those introducing Agile in their organization or other organizations, alongside Fearless Change and Leading Change.

This is an entirely useful and completely practical guide to essential Agile practices from author Amr Elssamadisy.

Amr is a personal friend. But wait...keep reading. The reason for the friendship has everything to do with the thinking and ideas found in this book. Amr is one of the clearest thinkers in the Agile community AND he has a great ability to convey this clear thinking in print. I wish all my friends could write like this !

This book enumerates the essential agile practices, isolating them one by one and dissecting them for you. Amr takes you on a tour of essential Agile practices and patterns-- and presents them in a highly organized, clear and accessible style.

After enumerating and decomposing the individual Agile patterns and practices, this book arranges those patterns into groups and clusters. The Communication cluster is especially interesting.

You can get a very clear sense of Agile concepts immediately with this book. As you progress with more personal experience and deeper understanding of Agile principles, you may find that this book actually increases in usefulness and value. That is my experience with this title.

This book has content that absolutely stands the test of time. Accordingly this book is on my short list of enduring Agile titles.

My current belief about this book is that it is a "must have" title. It belongs in the book library of every serious student of Agile.