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Rolling Rocks Downhill: How to Ship YOUR Software Projects On Time, Every Time (Theory of Constraints Simplified) Paperback – December 17, 2014

by Clarke Ching (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 332 ratings
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The company’s #1 IT project is running late. Very late.The CEO slashes the date, then gives Steve, the CIO, a choice:Commit to the new date, or find a new job.Steve tries to think of it as a puzzle or game—where the mission is to take a death-march IT project with an impossible deadline, and deliver it early, without sacrificing quality, without slashing scope, and without complaining.Unlike most games, he only gets one life.Fail and his company gets sold and he loses his job.His team will have to work together.They’ll have to innovate.If you must deliver your next Agile project to a short, aggressive deadline, without sacrificing quality ...... get Rolling Rocks Downhill now.Rolling Rocks Downhill is an Agile and Theory of Constraints business novel written by Clarke Ching, author of the Amazon best seller, The Bottleneck Rules."The advice on how to actually fix projects in the real world make this a fantastic book for anyone struggling with project management." - JB, audible.com"It is a novel about how to change to an agile mindset from a waterfall mindset." - Maarten, audible.com"First, this is and remains a story, and that's so much better than dreary business books." - Fabrice, audible.com"The story was told in a way that allows me in my agile transition to take a different look at how everything is working, from the scrum teams to the executives within the organization." - Nick, Audible.com "Better than the Phoenix Project!" - Mark, audible.co.uk"A lovely story that teaches great work flow practices in a easy to understand way. I really enjoyed it. And now l’m thinking about my work place, where is our bottle neck?" - audbile.com.au"I really loved this, got so caught up in the story I read it in one night!" - Frieda, goodreads.com"Makes the case for agile development methods without being too preachy." - Chris, goodreads.com"If you have read The Goal and you are working in the software industry, this is a must-read book." - Thierry, goodreads.com"This book is great at applying Goldratt's theory of constraints as a framework for understanding what Agile practices are valuable to adopt ... It's also very funny." - Gustav, goodreads.com
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  1. Part of series
    Theory of Constraints Simplified
  2. Print length
    319 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    December 17, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1505446511
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1505446517
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (December 17, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 319 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1505446511
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1505446517
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.06 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 332 ratings

About the author

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Clarke Ching

Clarke Ching

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Clarke Ching helps businesses make more money by combining Agile and the Theory of Constraints.

He is the only sock at OddSocks Consulting.

He lives in Nelson, New Zealand.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
332 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book good, easy, and fun to read. They also describe the book as thought-provoking, enlightening, and inspiring. Readers appreciate the engaging story that moves along and captures their attention.

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ReadabilityThought provokingStorytellingSoftware development
22 customers mention "Readability"22 positive0 negative

Customers find the book good, easy, and fun to read. They say it ilustrates practical application of lean system thinking and the theory of constraints. Readers also mention the book is highly engaging and easy to read cover-to-cover.

"...As a non-programmer knowledge worker, I found this book very accessible as well as a fun and interesting read...." Read more

"...It really is an incredibly easy book to read, and you will come away with a better understanding than you'll get from dipping to to pages of a..." Read more

"...realizes he has no choice but to change paths – is superb: highly engaging, fast paced, and close to the truth of software development and corporate..." Read more

"...The narrative structure of the book makes it an easy read, and anyone who's ever been on a project that's going south fast will find the story..." Read more

11 customers mention "Thought provoking"11 positive0 negative

Customers find the book enlightening, inspiring, and insightful. They say it's practical, well-written, and has good advice packed in an interesting business story. Readers also mention it helps them visualize how things work.

"...It starts with a practical, tangible example, then segues into using TOC in knowledge work...." Read more

"...just to be used to dig ourselves out of holes, they're general purpose thinking processes that help us improve teams, projects an organisations in..." Read more

"...It does have a marvelous mnemonic device to remember the evaporating cloud technique, which I'm immediately adopting.It's also very funny." Read more

"I enjoyed reading this book. It was engaging and provided some good insights...." Read more

8 customers mention "Storytelling"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the storytelling wonderful, engaging, and interesting. They say the story moves along and captures their attention all the way to the end.

"I loved the story, and the way the author built up the implementation of Agile along the way. Highly recommended." Read more

"...But the story moves along (I read it one evening), and left me with some valuable thinking to do." Read more

"...The story will resonate with readers, and they will recognize the challenges faced by their own teams...." Read more

"This is a great engaging story that teaches anyone in the software business some valueable things...." Read more

4 customers mention "Software development"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting and realistic. They say it conforms to actual software development problems and is a great combination of Agile and the Theory of Constraints.

"...paths – is superb: highly engaging, fast paced, and close to the truth of software development and corporate life in almost every way...." Read more

"Good book. Realistic; conforms to actual software development problems. Less TOC than I expected, and also less Agile than I expected...." Read more

"An interesting read on agile software development in a fictional company. Doesn’t mention any of the pitfalls but still a good read." Read more

"A great combination of Agile and the Theory of Constraints..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Joy Livingwell
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful introduction to Theory of Constraints and how to apply it
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2022
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This book is a fun read that helped me understand and apply Theory of Constraints to my own work and life. It starts with a practical, tangible example, then segues into using TOC in knowledge work. As a non-programmer knowledge worker, I found this book very accessible as well as a fun and interesting read. I think I've read it 3 times now, and listened to the audiobook twice. Each time I read it I learn something new.

I also recommend Clarke's marvelous short how-to book "The Bottleneck Rules" for its clear explanation of how to apply what you'll learn reading this novel.
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Mr. R. Dalton
4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read, and you'll get a better instinctive grasp of agile/lean than you'll get from dipping into reference books.
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2015
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Rolling Rocks Downhill is a parable about using agile techniques in a modern software development context. This isn't a textbook or a reference book, it's a novel, it's a story. This makes it much easier to read cover to cover. A typical reference book tends to be dipped into for specific answers, which isn't a good format for "understanding agile".

Ching gets around the resistance to agile by simply giving the characters no choice, he sets up an impossible project then keeps making things worse. This helps explain that almost complete lack of questioning of the techniques that are proposed. It was a little sleight of hand that I can understand. It's not a bad message. You can't impose Agile. People have to be ready for it, open to it. To accelerate that journey for a book, you make them desperate.

Another slightly unrealistic aspect of the book is that there isn't the initial "dip" in performance/productivity, and the inevitable temptation to revert to old habits. That felt like a pretty glaring plotline to omit since I suspect it's one of the biggest challenges. Given the newness of the principles to all involved and the pressure they were under, it felt a little too easy. Maybe a sequel will cover that ground.

One thing I did like is that the TCQ expert who planted the initial seed, isn't overused. He's sent on vacation for the critical part of the book leaving the team to figure things out on their own. He pops up occasionally in emails asking just the right question or pointing to just the right book but the overriding theme is you have to find your own solutions.

Another noticeable aspect of the story was that the team didn't adopt a methodology, or a framework like Scrum or Kanban. They looked at the problems they had and devised their own solutions. They picked up ideas from each other. This notion of solving your own problems is central to the story and to agile, but Ching doesn't beat you over the head with it, nor does he tell you that Scrum or other practices are bad.

What will this book give you?

If you have no idea what people are talking about when they talk about agile, this book will go a long way to explaining that. If you have already bought into the agile philosophy this book will probably reinforce some of what you know, give you some nice metaphors, and maybe give some pointers to other areas of study.

This book isn't going to win a Booker Prize for fiction, that isn't it's purpose. It's purpose is to keep you turning the pages so you that you learn about agile and the theory of constraints in a broader context. It absolutely succeeds, I really found it hard to put down, despite all the misgivings I had about how neatly things were working out for the characters.

It really is an incredibly easy book to read, and you will come away with a better understanding than you'll get from dipping to to pages of a reference book.

One final note, If you do decide to read the book, try not to think about small batches.
4 people found this helpful
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Aryeh Sonnenberg
5.0 out of 5 stars Super job of presenting the challenges of software
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2022
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I loved the story, and the way the author built up the implementation of Agile along the way. Highly recommended.
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Ron Lichty
4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging read: software development in a nutshell
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2016
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Sometimes it takes fictional narrative (cleverly written to all too closely resemble the realities within which we all live) to drive home not the “how” of new ways of doing things – but the “why”. Why continuing down the path of practices that repeatedly yield bad quality and missed deadlines is madness. Why the only sensible thing to do is (if somehow you don’t know about them already) to invent agile and lean practices.
Frankly, the first half of the novel is too long. But the rest – once our hero finally realizes he has no choice but to change paths – is superb: highly engaging, fast paced, and close to the truth of software development and corporate life in almost every way. And it illustrates that changing paths can be done in a step-by-step way.
Other tech novels in the genre worth reading: Goldratt’s “ The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement ” (Goldratt, who wrote for manufacturing, is a major source for Clarke Ching), Steve Bockman’s “ Predictability: A simple approach to creating reliable project schedules by Steve Bockman (2013-02-14) ”, Tom DeMarco’s “ The Deadline: A Novel about Project Management ”, and the DevOps focused “ The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win ”.
2 people found this helpful
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Jay H.
5.0 out of 5 stars Stop telling IT professionals to read The Goal...they should read THIS first!
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2021
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Anyone who's in the Lean/Agile space has heard of The Goal; Theory of Constraints is one of the most helpful concepts that anyone could learn (besides the fact that once you see it you can't un-see it). I've tried to suggest The Goal to multiple people and it never seems to resonate; one reason is because The Goal is about manufacturing, and people have trouble conceptually applying manufacturing to software development. This book solves that problem and then some!

This is a book about multiple concepts....agile, Theory of Constraints, and it even goes into a "light" agile transformation. The narrative structure of the book makes it an easy read, and anyone who's ever been on a project that's going south fast will find the story familiar.

If you're looking to introduce someone to Theory of Constraints by way of agile, this is THE BOOK to get!
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Roboticist
4.0 out of 5 stars Realistic!
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2021
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Good book. Realistic; conforms to actual software development problems. Less TOC than I expected, and also less Agile than I expected. But the story moves along (I read it one evening), and left me with some valuable thinking to do.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Andrea, Jole, Giugiu e Lilli
5.0 out of 5 stars Usare la TOC in Agile: un'ottima sinergia
Reviewed in Italy on April 5, 2021
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Concetti vaghi ed intangibili diventano finalmente reali con questa business novel alla "The Goal" di Goldratt.

Al di là dell'ottima scrittura del testo, i punti chiave sono pochi e concisi:

Tagliare lo scopo del progetto è il modo migliore per rispettare le scadenze.

Cercare il collo di bottiglia prima di ottimizzare il sistema.

Concentrarsi sul flusso delle funzionalità finite che vengono rilasciate.

Grandioso!
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Txaume
5.0 out of 5 stars Al ser novelado es mucho más fácil de asimilar y engancha
Reviewed in Spain on March 31, 2019
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Es la novela de un jefe de equipo de desarrollo que se enfrenta a una pesadilla y cómo avanza paso a paso para mejorar la forma de trabajo del equipo usando principios de Agile. Se lee muy bien, incluso engancha.
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Lord Mobi
5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read
Reviewed in Germany on November 10, 2018
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Best book on "agile" management, that I have read so far.
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Simon Pritchard
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun way to learn TOC, Agile and the linkages between them
Reviewed in Australia on July 3, 2020
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Coming from more depth in the Theory of Constraints (ToC), I'd started using Agile outside software development. I was attracted to this book, written in the style of a business novel like "The Goal", to understand Agile better. Reading this, the penny really dropped for me on the why and how of Agile, and why it's consistent with the ToC. Although the subject is a software development project, its very relevant to business more broadly.

I'm grateful to Clarke for creating this book, and I highly recommend it.
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Martin @B2BTechMark
5.0 out of 5 stars As good as Goldratt
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2016
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Really enjoyed reading this book. It's well-written, has a good pace and balance to it. If you've read any Goldratt books (The Goal, It's Not Luck, Critical Chain, etc) or the more recent Phoenix Project, you'll find this interesting. It has a similar structure (guy faces seemingly impossible challenge, guy gets advice from cryptic mentor, solution unfolds, guy becomes company hero), but that's not a bad thing; it's still a riveting read. Illustrates the human aspects/conflicts in an interesting way.

When I'd finished it, I was quite sorry that it was over. I'd like to see more business novels from this author. I have to give a 5-star rating as I can't see any major faults. One minor thing...there's a blank page between chapters, which I found unnecessary (a bit of a waste of paper and added to the weight of the book). It's more like 250 pages, not 310, so you could probably read it in a day if you're lucky enough to have the time to read it in one sitting.
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