Re: [AgileScotland] Some light Xmas reading ...

Oh, I forgot to add that while Rock's into Gold's secret lesson doesn't apply to every single business, it does apply to many, many businesses, even those that initially dismiss it.  And ... it applies to big businesses, small businesses, tiny businesses, internet businesses, bricks-and-mortar businesses and so on.  It's also a secret that many in the agile community already know, but not many of their customers or bosses know or appreciate. 

 

In the current economic climate/crisis/recession ... it's probably THE best justification I've ever heard of for businesses to adopt agile.

 

I hope some of you find the little book useful.

 

Clarke

On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 1:34 PM, agile scotland <agile.scotland@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi - It's Clarke Ching here wishing you a happy, agile and merry Xmas. 

I've been busy over the last few months with work (thankfully in Scotland) and "RollingRocksDownhill" writing commitments ... but I did manage to take a little time out to write my, um, first book.  It's a parable - the everydayAgile version of "the one minute manager", or "who moved my cheese", or "my iceberg is melting" - about a clever programmer who is about to lose his job because the economy has gone belly up but rather than accepting his fate he decides to do something about it ...

I was going to call it "The DaVinci Coder" but my wife wouldn't let me ... so it's called "Rocks into Gold".  I wrote it because I've got friends who've lost jobs recently due to the economy and, in the last month, I've been fortunate to survive two rounds of layoffs.  The economy has gotten bad ... and I fear it's only going to get worse. 

Rocks into Gold contains the ONE lesson I've learnt from Agile which may save more jobs - fortunately it's the simplest lesson to apply; unfortunately, many people have never heard of it.  That said, this isn't a book about agile - there's nothing technical there.

You can read more here - http://www.clarkeching.com/2008/12/rocks-into-gold-a-credit-crunch-parable-for-people-who-build-software-for-a-living.html - including a link to get a free pre-copy-edit copy by emailing the books hero.  

Please go grab a copy, read it (you'll easily finish it in 30-60 minutes) then please, please, please let me know, what you think.  I should have the copy edited version online, for free, in very early January and a paper version available for sale shortly after that, but I'd love to hear your feedback first.  If you have friends or colleagues whose work is drying up becasue of the credit crunch then you're welcome to send them a copy of the pdf - it might cheer them up for Xmas.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays!  I have a few very interesting AgileScotland sessions lined up for the new year ...

 

Clarke