Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders

I dont care for cookbooks, as in 5 steps to success at whatever. I like books that urge you to thinkthat present new ideas and get mental juices flowing. Jurgens book is in this latter category; it asks us to think about leading and managing as a complex undertakingespecially in todays turbulent world. Management 3.0 offers managers involved in agile/lean transformations a thought-provoking guide how they themselves can become agile.

Jim Highsmith, Executive Consultant, ThoughtWorks, Inc., www.jimhighsmith.com, Author of Agile Project Management

An up-to-the-minute, relevant round-up of research and practice on complexity and management, cogently summarized and engagingly presented.

David Harvey, Independent Consultant, Teams and Technology

Management 3.0 is an excellent book introducing agile to management. Ive not seen any book that comes near to what this book offers for managers of agile teams. Its not only a must read, its a must share.

Olav Maassen, Xebia

If you want hard fast rules like if x happens, do y to fix it forget this book. Actually forget about a management career. But if you want tons of ideas on how to make the work of your team more productive and thereby more fun and thereby more productive and thereby more fun andread this book! You will get a head start on this vicious circle along with a strong reasoning on why the concepts work.

Jens Schauder, Software Developer, LINEAS

There are a number of books on managing Agile projects and transitioning from being a Project Manager to working in an Agile setting. However, there isnt much on being a manager in an Agile setting. This book fills that gap, but actually addresses being an effective manager in any situation. The breadth of research done and presented as background to the actual concrete advice adds a whole other element to the book. And all this while writing in an entertaining style as well.

Scott Duncan, Agile Coach/Trainer, Agile Software Qualities

Dont get tricked by the word Agile used in the subtitle. The book isnt really about Agile; it is about healthy, sensible and down-to-earth management. Something, which is still pretty uncommon.

Pawel Brodzinski, Software Project Management

When I first met Jurgen and learned he was writing a book based on complexity theory, I thought, That sounds good, but Ill never understand it. Books with words like entropy, chaos theory, and thermodynamics tend to scare me. In fact, not only did I find Management 3.0 accessible and easy to understand, I can [also] apply the information immediately, in a practical way. It makes sense that software teams are complex adaptive systems, and a relief to learn how to apply these ideas to help our teams do the best work possible. This book will help...

Jurgen Appelo is a writer, speaker, trainer, developer, entrepreneur, manager, blogger, reader, dreamer, leader, and freethinker. And he's Dutch, which explains his talent for being weird. After studying software engineering at the Delft University of Technology, and earning his Master's degree in 1994, Jurgen busied himself either starting up or leading a variety of Dutch businesses, always in the position of team leader, manager, or executive. Jurgen's most recent occupation was CIO at ISM eCompany, one of the largest e-business solution providers in The Netherlands. As a manager, Jurgen has experience in leading software developers, development managers, project managers, quality managers, service managers, and kangaroos, some of which he hired accidentally. He is primarily interested in software development and complexity theory, from a manager's perspective. As a writer he has published papers and articles in many magazines, and he maintains a blog at www.noop.nl. As a speaker he is regularly invited to talk at seminars and conferences. Last but not least, Jurgen is a trainer, with workshops based on the Management 3.0 model. His materials address the topics of energizing people, empowering teams, aligning constraints, developing competence, growing structure, and improving everything. However, sometimes he puts all writing, speaking, and training aside to do some programming himself, or to spend time on his ever-growing collection of science fiction and fantasy literature, which he stacks in a self-designed book case that is four meters high. Jurgen lives in Rotterdam (The Netherlands)--and sometimes in Brussels (Belgium)--with his partner Raoul. He has two kids and an imaginary hamster called George.

Forewords    xix

Acknowledgments    xxv

About the Author    xxvii

Preface    xxix

1  Why Things Are Not That Simple    1

Causality    2

Complexity     3

Our Linear Minds     5

Reductionism     7

Holism    8

Hierarchical Management    9

Agile Management    11

My Theory of Everything    12

The Book and the Model     13

Summary    14

Reflection and Action    14

2  Agile Software Development     17

Prelude to Agile     17

The Book of Agile    19

The Fundamentals of Agile    22

The Competition of Agile    24

The Obstacle to Agile    28

Line Management versus Project Management     28

Summary    30

Reflection and Action    31

3  Complex Systems Theory    33

Cross-Functional Science    34

General Systems Theory    35

Cybernetics    36

Dynamical Systems Theory     37

Game Theory    37

Evolutionary Theory     38

Chaos Theory     38

The Body of Knowledge of Systems    39

Simplicity: A New Model    41

Revisiting Simplification    44

Nonadaptive versus Adaptive     45

Are We Abusing Science?    46

A New Era: Complexity Thinking    48

Summary    50

Reflection and Action    50

4  The Information-Innovation System    51

Innovation Is the Key to Survival    52

Knowledge    54

Creativity    56

Motivation     58

Diversity    60

Personality     62

Only People Are Qualified for Control     64

From Ideas to Implementation    65

Summary    66

Reflection and Action    67

5  How to Energize People    69

Creative Phases     69

Manage a Creative Environment    72

Creative Techniques    74

Extrinsic Motivation    75

Intrinsic Motivation     78

Demotivation     79

Ten Desires of ...