Book Notes #17: Changing Software Development by Allan Kelly

Changing Software Development explains why software development is an exercise in change management and organizational intelligence.

Title: Changing Software Development: Learning to Become Agile
Author: Allan Kelly
Year: 2008
Pages: 258

Changing Software Development is peppered with practical advice and case studies to explain how and why knowledge, learning, and change are important in the development process. 

An underlying belief is that change is learning and learning creates knowledge. By blending the theory of knowledge management, developers, and managers will gain the tools to enhance learning and change to accommodate new innovative approaches such as agile and lean computing.

Today, managers are preoccupied with knowledge management, organization learning, and change management, while software developers are often ignorant of the bigger issues embedded in their work.

Changing Software Development considers learning to be the vital tool in the change process in any type of business. In doing so, it blends the fields of management and software development.

As a result, I gave this book a rating of 7.5/10.

For me, a book with a note 10 is one I consider reading again every year. Among the books I rank with 10, for example, is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Overview of Changing Software Development

Changing Software Development bridges this divide by linking the software world of technology and processes to the business world of knowledge, learning, and change. 

Allan has done an excellent job of combining modern business management principles with modern software methodology, so you can draw on the knowledge of both business and software experts.

The first idea of Changing Software Development is about changing your development team. In the short to medium term, the focus is on making your team Agile. In the longer term, it is about making your team into a learning team, capable of learning, changing, and improving itself. Such teams are true Agile teams.

The second idea in Changing Software Development is a call to change the dominant view of software development. Traditionally, software development has been considered an engineering discipline – something to be planned, scheduled, and executed. 

The view presented considers the process of developing software as an exercise in learning and knowledge creation.

Changing Software Development provides a comprehensive guide to understanding the changing nature of software development, the challenges of implementing change, and the best methods and approaches to successful change management.

By blending the theory of knowledge management, developers and managers will gain the tools to enhance learning and change to accommodate new innovative approaches such as agile and lean computing.

My Book Highlights & Quotes

“… In the longer term, it is about making your team into a learning team, capable of learning, changing, and improving itself. Such teams are true Agile teams…”

Changing Software Development is an essential guide for anyone looking to successfully implement change in software development. 

By understanding the key principles of change management and applying the best practices outlined in the book, readers can quickly and successfully implement change and ensure the success of their projects.

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