Feature Driven Development

The Logic of Failure author: Dietrich Dorner asin: 0201479486 binding: Paperback list price: $19.00 USD amazon price: $12.92 USD

Subtitle: Recognizing and avoiding error in complex situations.

I haven't read many great books for a while and so it was a real joy when I bought this one. An excellent book with many lessons in it and again, not based on speculation but on research, measurement, experimentation and analysis. From one of the studies: "the good participants made more decisions than the bad ones," "both the good and bad participants did not differ in the frequency with which they developed hypotheses," "the good participants differed from the bad ones however, in how often they tested their hypotheses."

Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is author: Donald C. Gause; Gerald M. Weinberg asin: 0932633161 binding: Paperback list price: $13.95 USD amazon price: $12.55 USD

A great book on problem solving. People that have seen me speak about how visually expressive and visually explicit models are compared to how ambiguous and vague the written word can be, will recognize the "Mary had a little lamb" example from this book. Anything written by Weinberg is worth reading.

Quality Software Management: Anticipating Change (Quality Software Management) author: Gerald M. Weinberg asin: 0932633323 binding: Hardcover list price: $44.95 USD amazon price: $35.96 USD

The last of a four volume series. Anything written by Weinberg is worth reading. I once told Jerry that much of his stuff (and others) I read and then go "I wish I wrote that.". He replied something like "yes I used to think that way too then I learned to just be glad that I read it." 'nuff said?

Quality Software Management: Congruent Action (Quality Software Management) author: Gerald M. Weinberg asin: 0932633285 binding: Hardcover list price: $39.95 USD amazon price: $31.96 USD

The third of a four volume series. Anything written by Weinberg is worth reading. I once told Jerry that much of his stuff (and others) I read and then go "I wish I wrote that.". He replied something like "yes I used to think that way too then I learned to just be glad that I read it." 'nuff said?

Quality Software Management: First-Order Measurement (Quality Software Management) author: Gerald M. Weinberg asin: 0932633242 binding: Hardcover list price: $43.95 USD amazon price: $43.95 USD

The second of a four volume series. Anything written by Weinberg is worth reading. I once told Jerry that much of his stuff (and others) I read and then go "I wish I wrote that.". He replied something like "yes I used to think that way too then I learned to just be glad that I read it." 'nuff said?

Quality Software Management: Systems Thinking (Quality Software Management) author: Gerald M. Weinberg asin: 0932633226 binding: Hardcover list price: $41.95 USD amazon price: $41.95 USD

The first of a four volume series. Anything written by Weinberg is worth reading. I once told Jerry that much of his stuff (and others) I read and then go "I wish I wrote that.". He replied something like "yes I used to think that way too then I learned to just be glad that I read it." 'nuff said?

TRUE PROFESSIONALISM : The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients, and Your Career author: David H. Maister asin: 0684840049 binding: Paperback list price: $15.00 USD amazon price: $10.20 USD

EVERYONE that works for Nebulon gets a copy of this book. 'nuff said?

Managing The Professional Service Firm author: David H. Maister asin: 0684834316 binding: Paperback list price: $26.00 USD amazon price: $17.16 USD

If you run a services business (or line of business) then you must have this book. It's that simple and this book is that good.

Bob Lewis's IS Survival Guide author: Bob Lewis asin: 0672314371 binding: Paperback list price: $24.99 USD amazon price: $24.99

Lewis is a very good writer and many enjoy his popular Infoworld column and his "management speak." This is a very good book, very easy to read and the results hierarchy described in this book is the basis for my approach to program and portfolio management, project governance, and the framework for linking ALL activities in an I.T. shop back to the business.

Peak Performance: Aligning the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees author: Jon R. Katzenbach asin: 0875849369 binding: Hardcover list price: $35.00 USD amazon price: $23.10 USD

What a breath of fresh air. Now here's a novel idea: the list of good things to do is almost endless and any of us could start making such a list. The things on it will almost all have merit individually. The trick then is this: which subset of all those "good things to do" is the right subset to apply for my organization? Katzenbach has gone out and studied successful organizations and classified them. He has then studied the subsets of "good things to do" for each organization classiifcation. Brilliant! This book puts a TON of other management and HR books in their place.