Customer Reviews

Stand Back and Deliver: Accelerating Business Agility

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This recently released book on Leadership and Strategic Approach is, basically, excellent!

I am an advocate of taking the ego out of management and believe that managers acting as facilitators and stepping in when necessary rather than taking an ever-present command and control attitude, gain far more productivity from their teams.

The authors of this book have provided me with additional tools in their arguments and instruction in 150 pages than most Project Management book three times the size. They keep things simple and are concise without the patronizing tone that can be felt when reading other books of this nature.

They explain 4 simple models that can be used today in many different industries and write in a way that motivates the reader to try these out as soon as they get back to the office. They focus on:

Purpose Alignment Model - which allows for a clearer vision of what categories projects fall into. I have seen more generic and complex 'Business Alignment Models' where many projects are incorrectly categorized as 'differentiating' but do not add this type of value to the organization. By focussing on the purpose and using their 'Billboard' technique, insight is given into which projects truly are differentiating to the organization.

Context Leadership Model - giving visibility into the complexity and uncertainty values of a project to help leaders manage projects, with the right people, more effectively.

A Four Step Collaboration Process - designed to assess the right people for the job, allowing transparency in environments and then trusting people to get on with what they do best to produce high quality work.

Value Based Decision Making - Determining which projects to start, continue and stop based on making decisions at the last responsible moment. This model is taken from Lean Product Management and has worked well in the past.

These are simple models, easily implemented, directed at resolving common root causes that are systemic in many activities. The concise, real, case studies accompanying the ideals show what is not only possible, but achievable. Using the 'Purpose Alignment Model' I found myself not only looking at current projects but completed ones to determine, in retrospect, whether we overspent resources into what we thought was a differentiating project when really it was one that actually retained business parity.

I know this will quickly be one of the dog-eared, bent out of shape, probably missing its cover type books that I often return too.

If you are a business leader and want a fresh perspective of the projects currently underway in your organization or group this is a valuable resource that will provide, in my opinion, huge ROI.

The Context Leadership Model seems the best part of this book. It suggests that projects be plotted in a two dimensional graph, where the axes are complexity and uncertainty. The graph is divided into 4 quadrants, and each is labelled by a fanciful descriptor. To be sure, there is no absolute scale on either axis. But the point is that if you have several projects, {A, B, C...}, then you should try to ascertain if complexity(A) > complexity(B) etc. Then this gives the ordering of the projects along the complexity axis. Ditto for uncertainty. So you can now plot these projects relative to each other.

The book spends much time talking about the different actions you should take, as a project leader, for each quadrant. Useful, as the authors suggest that there are qualitative differences between the quadrants in terms of project management as well as personnel best suited.

But there is a problem that is elided over. It has to do with the boundary between the quadrants. Yes, you can probably do a reasonable job assessing the relative ordering of projects and thus get a graph. But where do the quadrants overlay these points?

This may be unsolvable. Instead, suppose some projects have already been done, while at least one project is ahead of you. (If none, then there's little point to this book except purely as a retrospective analysis.) Perhaps from how you've handled the prior projects, you can try to see which of the quadrants they should have been in, after a careful study of the book. Then use this to fix the quadrant overlay and apply it to the new project.

Managing projects and solving difficult situations within organizations can be devilishly difficult. Complexity and uncertainty can provoke inappropriate, even counterproductive, judgments and actions. In such circumstances, you need special tools and processes to help you sort out your strategy and make better choices. Co-authors Pollyanna Pixton, Niel Nickolaisen, Todd Little and Kent McDonald provide effective mechanisms for managing projects and solving problems. They approach business decision making with careful deliberation, analytical precision and sound reasoning. Their book provides the support systems you need to weigh your options and address your business dilemmas. getAbstract finds that leaders at all levels will benefit from knowing this book's hands-on tools.

Pollyanna Pixton, Niel Nickolaisen, et.al.'s STAND BACK AND DELIVER: ACCELERATING BUSINESS AGILITY offers the agile leadership tools needed to achieve extraordinary performance levels. It offers immediately usable frameworks and a step-by-step process that helps focus efforts and tells how to use the author's model to make better investment decisions. Chapters offer guidelines on everything from bringing agility concepts to projects to developing innovative collaborative styles. Business libraries will find this inspiring.

Differentiating, Partner, Parity, Who Cares. Where does your project fall, and what might you do differently because of that? Is your project a Bull, a Colt, a Cow or a Sheep Dog? Even just the names give you an idea that you are in for a different ride with each of these projects. Using straightforward models and a good dose of common sense, Stand and Deliver will change how you view projects and help you utilize your organization's resources to deliver just what is needed.

As a developer I learned early that the best solutions to complex problems are generally the simplest ones. There is a certain eloquence in simplicity. The eloquence of this book is its straight forward presentation of a simple set of tools through real-world examples of their worth and utility. Starting with a framework to show the interrelation between value-based decision making, purpose alignment, collaboration, and delivery, the authors share their considerable experience to help you invest the right resources in the right projects.

What's the purpose of your project? It sounds funny to say it, but often project teams don't actually know this. Does the project keep your company up with the Joneses? Put you ahead of the field? Or does no one actually care that much about it. The Purpose Alignment Model provides an assessment of purpose based on how a project relates to the organization's mission and market position. Is the project delivering capabilities that are mission critical and market differentiating? That's a Differentiating project that is worthy of the organization's all out efforts. Is the project mission critical, but not differentiating in the market? Now we have a Parity project on which we need to avoid over delivering. Taken to another level the Purpose Alignment Model can also help project teams assess the purpose of specific features of a project and deliver them much more effectively.

Another highlight for me is the authors' recognition that all projects are not alike and because they are not, different leadership techniques are required. The Context Leadership Model helps you assess the complexity and the uncertainty of the effort you are about to undertake and determine the type of leadership that is required. A Bull project is one of high uncertainty and high complexity. At the other end of the spectrum is the Sheep Dog project with little uncertainty and low complexity. What kind of leader is needed for each of these? Are we wasting a Bull leader on a Sheep Dog project? Again the experience of the authors helps you think through how to match the respective talents of leaders to the rigors of a particular project.

Stand and Deliver is a short, straightforward read, but exercising the models put forth in this book can help stop the churn and focus project teams on doing what is best for your organization.

This is absolutely one of the best career-shaping books I've read, ever. It's concise, it's easy to read, and it's chock full of some seriously vital things you need to get solid in your head as part of successful software delivery.

I found a wide range of great wisdom in this book, some things which were new, and some which were things I'd let slip. There's insight on teams, personnel, risk management, and lots of other goodies. It's all laid out in short, well-written chapters authored by folks who've been around the block a number of times.

While all of the book was extremely helpful, perhaps one of the most valuable things I found was their "Purpose Alignment Model," (PAM) a simple quad chart with market differentiation on the Y axis and mission criticality on the X. The quads break down in to categories of Who Cares, Partner, Parity, and Differentiating. The authors walk the reader through clear, powerful exercises to help you focus on making decisions that will help you succeed at differentiating you and your company from your competitors - but retaining some focus on things you need to stay in parity with them.

I found all the discussion around the PAM highly stimulating because it fits so well with my fundamental beliefs in being adamant and aggressive about Lean software development. The section on Context Leadership Model is probably just as important: it helps you assess a project's uncertainty and complexity. Again, the authors do a tremendous job showing you utterly practical, real-world applications of this.

I can't recommend this book enough if you're at all interested in improving how you decide what to build, and how you go about it.

I have held a number of different positions in the nonprofit sector including project manager and United Way CEO before moving recently to the for-profit world as an entrepreneur. I have been in some gut-wrenching situations including having to negotiate an emergency merger for a failing nonprofit and rescuing a million dollar project from mismanagement. I've been familiar with many of the ideas in this book for some time now, and it's no exaggeration to say that they have meant the difference between success and failure for me. I never thought of myself as "management material". My fundamental respect for people means that I don't like bossing people. I also don't like conflict - I have all the makings of a milquetoast. But this book has showed me (along with a few others like Ricardo Semmler's "Seven Day Weekend" and "Good to Great") that it is possible to manage teams and projects out of a deep sense of basic humanity. It helped me understand the difference between managing people and processes, and provides some great tools and ideas for processes that engage people's talents, passions, and creativity. This has resulted in not only some great organizational successes but many very happy and engaged employees (including me). Very highly recommended.