Explore Books on Agile, Software Development, and Digital Transformation

Succeeding with OKRs in Agile

A guide to effectively integrating Objectives and Key Results with Agile practices for enhanced team performance and strategic success.

Business Patterns for Software Developers

Essential strategies and patterns for navigating business challenges in software development.

Books to be Written

A non-fictions author's how-to guide to writing, publishing and marketing

The Art of Agile Product Ownership

A Guide for Product Managers, Business Analysts, and Entrepreneurs

Project Myopia

Critiques the project model and proposes alternatives for the digital era.

Continuous Digital

Agile integration with continuous innovation for digital business management.

Changing Software Development

Exploring agile methodologies for adaptable software development and continuous team learning.

Work with Allan and the Software Strategy team

Strategic Consulting

Workflow design, Product strategy, OKR adoption, team structure, organization design, Agile adoption or reboot

Agile & OKR Coaching

Experienced coaches available on a fractional basis or embedded in your teams

Training in Agile & OKRs

Fun, enjoyable, training for people who learn by doing

Succeeding with OKRs in Agile

Amazon #1 Best seller in “Agile Programming” and “IT Project Management”

OKRs are about goals bigger than the next story, or even epic. OKRs prioritise purpose and strategy over backlogs. Objectives are big goals; key results are smaller goals that build towards the objective.

Agile works well with OKRs because both are outcome oriented and results focused. Used right OKRs give purpose, power and authority to teams. Used poorly OKRs can re-introduce command-and-control and hinder agile working.

Allan Kelly has written this short guide to OKRs: writing, organizing to deliver and the pitfalls of using. He doesn’t try to sell OKRs, rather Allan draws on his practical experience with teams working agile and adopting OKRs, day-by-day, quarter-by-quarter.

Initially sceptical, Allan found OKRs became an effective way to focus teams, expose problems, communicate with senior managers and a powerful means of asking bigger questions about product strategy and value.

Read more about Succeeding with OKRs in Agile.

Business Patterns for Software Developers

The truth is that I spend more time chasing down my own stupid programming error analysers in every JavaScript file I write.
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Amazon Review

You know all about your software product but could do with some help in understanding the strategic side of things. If so, this book is the one–stop resource you′ll need in order to become a successful software entrepreneur. A step–by–step route that needs to be followed in order to understand business strategy and operations.

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Books to be Written

Thinking of writing a book? Debating between self-publishing and finding a publisher? Wondering how to market your book?

Books to be Written describes expereinces from writing, publishing and marketing eight books. Learn more about Books to be Written and how you can download a free samle.

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“It’s amazing, I’m writing a book myself (my first) and this is timed perfectly for me. So much great advice in there and your honesty is refreshing.”
Sean Luke

The Art of Agile Product Ownership

Every product owner faces a complex and unique set of challenges within their team. This provides each individual the opportunity to fill the role with different ambitions, skills, and insights. Your product ownership journey can take a variety of paths, and The Art of Agile Product Ownership is here to be your guide.

I will recommend this book naturally to everybody that will have the responsibility of being a Product Owner in a Scrum project.
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Read a review on Scrum Expert. (Published by Apress, 2019.)

Project Myopia

Why Projects Damage Software #NoProjects – a companion to Continuous Digital.

Projects fail. Some say 40% of all IT projects fail, some say 70%. And it has been that way for years.

Each project fails for its own reasons but they all share one thing in common: the Project Model. Could it be the project model itself which creates failure?

Project Myopia is available at Amazon – print, ebook and audio versions

Little Book about Requirements and User Stories

Heuristics for requirements in an agile world

Watch this video introduction to Little – This book was written because, while User Stories look easy, I found I was answering the same questions again and again.

“How do I make my user stories smaller?”

“What is the right size for a user story?”

“What is the difference between an Epic and a Story?”

“And where do Tasks and Sub-tasks fit in?

Continuous Digital

Taking Agile to the next level – An agile alternative to projects

In the digital world, the business is technology, and technology is the business. Every business is a digital business

Continuous Digital is a new management model for digital business. Agile software development was the first wave of process change for digital business. Now it is time to update management models and thinking.

This book describes the Continuous model, a world in which technology development drives the business and the business drives technology.

Changing Software Development

Learning to be agile

Changing Software Development Learning to be Agile is a study in changing the software development process. At a practical level it sets out to help the reader change the way software is created.Changing Software Development considers learning to be the vital tool in the change process. In doing so it blends the fields of management and software development. The book argues that software development as primarily a learning activity and software developers are at the cutting edge of the twenty-first century knowledge economy. Pulished by John Wiley, 2008. Fun fact: the book subtitle was intended to be “learning to be agile”, this implies a oneness between learning and agile. This sub-title is given on the inner pages but somehow, on the cover, “be” became “become.” Changing Software Development, also available in Japanese.

Xanpan

Team Centric agile Software Development

A cross between XP and Kanban… Is an example of a roll-your-own method… Is team centric Agile… Is distilled from Allan Kelly’s own experiences running development teams and then helping multiple teams adopt Agile working methods and practices. Xanpan draws ideas from Kanban and Lean, XP and Scrum, Product Management and Business…

Video: Allan Kelly previews Xanpan at BCS Lean Kanban Day conference 2013 (slides on slideshare) and Xanpan extended presentation from DevWeek London 2014.

Blogs about Xanpan: Origins of Xanpan, Planned and Unplanned work in Xanpan and Refining the Process.

Plus, the unfinished book 2 of Xanpan, Management and the Team.