Book Review: Balancing Agility and Discipline
I recently completed a book called Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed by Barry Boehm and Richard Turner that provided a balanced view of the issues around Agile and Plan-Driven project methodologies. It was especially refreshing to get beyond the “holy wars” surrounding each approach and see the authors take an extremely pragmatic approach to the topics.
This book is intend for readers who already have a general understanding of project management techniques and doesn’t present itself as a training manual for any one technique. Instead the authors present the pros and cons of each and discuss how each approach is well suited to specific situations. The best summarization of their conclusion, which I happen to agree with is:
- Neither agile nor plan-driven methods provides a silver bullet.
- Agile and plan-drive methods have home grounds where one clearly dominates the other.
- Future trends are toward application development that need both agility and discipline.
- Some balanced methods are emerging.
- It is better to build your method up than to tailor is down.
- Methods are important, but potential silver bullets are more likely to be found in areas dealing with people, values, communication, and expectations management. (p. 148)
The book is composed of six chapters and five appendices with the “meat” of the book comprising less than two hundred pages so this is a quick and easy that makes good reference material when reviewing implementation methods.
I think this book fits easily into a market where most topical coverage is focused on either one methodology and they are each touted as the best approach for project management and execution. This book presents the rational argument that each method has its place and its use.
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