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The ACCU passes on review copies of computer books to its members for them to review. The result is a large, high quality collection of book reviews by programmers, for programmers. Currently there are 1949 reviews in the database and more every month.
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Title:
Agile Management for Software Engineering
Author:
David J Anderson
ISBN:
0-13-142460-2
Publisher:
Prentice Hall
Pages:
312
Price:
£35-99
Reviewer:
Jon Steven White
Subject:
management
Appeared in:
16-4
Agile Management for Software Engineering is targeted at managers, team leaders and executives within the IT industry. It sets out to explain how to achieve lower cost, faster delivery, improved quality, and focused alignment within a business.

The first part of the book covers all aspects of Agile Management including production metrics, project management, project planning, resource planning, product management and financial metrics. The author does an excellent job in describing how and why traditional cost accounting systems fall short in software development, and how this can be improved through the application of the Theory of Constraints, a concept originating from the world of manufacturing. Each topic is described very clearly, providing solid background information and real-world discussions to back-up convincing conclusions.

The latter part of the book provides a survey and comparison of a number of software development methods. This part of the book is particularly useful to anybody who needs to manage a change to Agile development, and to choose the most suitable Agile methods for their organisation. Again, the author provides solid information with clear and useful diagrams.

Agile Management for Software Engineering is the best book I have read on Agile software engineering. Writing with clearly extensive knowledge and experience in this area, the author convinces the reader very quickly of the advantages of Agile development. Agile methods have been around long enough now to prove that they do actually work. If you are interested in managing a change to Agile development, curious as to what it can offer, or just want to question the way your organisation currently works, then I'd highly recommend this book.