Category Archives: Book Reviews

Now Reading: “Personal Kanban” by Benson and Barry

Last night, I obtained an autographed copy of Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry. Jim gave an engaging speech in which he described some awesome success stories. The speech was about Kanban, in general, as applied in business settings.  So, now, I’m anxious to read the book to get Jim and Tonianne’s take on how to apply it individually.

When I spoke to Tonianne privately after the event, I told her that I’m a fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (“GTD”), and I asked her how their Personal Kanban compares to GTD. She said that PK actually plays nice with, and builds upon, GTD and that GTD is mentioned prominently in the book.  Now, I just need to see if I can remember how to read a book that’s printed on physical paper.

Now Reading: “Continuous Delivery” by Humble and Farley

My local study group has selected our next book: Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation by Jez Humble and David Farley. This one picks up where a previous book in the series, Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk, leaves off by venturing outside the developer’s realm and tying together other parts of the organization.

I’m expecting this book to become a well-worn, dog-eared resident of my “Software Bibles” bookshelf. (Can you still say “well-worn” and “dog-eared” in the Kindle age?)

“Clean Code” — Crafting On Principles

The inaugural post for blog that focuses on simplicity in software development has got to be one that mentions the book called “Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship” by Robert Martin. As I originally mentioned on the ThotSpots blog, this is no ordinary book on writing better software. It’s not just another “Code Complete” or “The Pragmatic Programmer.” Continue reading “Clean Code” — Crafting On Principles