No long post tonight, I just want to share an opinion about interesting book I’m currently reading (almost finished) - "The Goal" by Eliyahu Goldratt.
This book is considered one of the foundations of modern Kanban (and that should be a sufficient recommendation for all of you, really). In my opinion everyone in Accenture should read this book. So what’s it about?
It’s about productivity.
Not a self-motivation mumbo-jumbo, but real productivity - what it really means, what factors impact it and what are the ways to improve the productivity of a multi-step process of creating a complex product. Goldratt has presented in this book (for the first time) his "Theory of Contraints" - management approach that relies on maximizing throughput while decreasing operational expense and inventory. Throughput? Inventory? But those are not applicable to software develoment! Oh, yes they are - just read the book and follow the examples carefully.
Btw. this book is VERY specific - it’s not a typical economy / management handbook - it actually has a plot and few characters, so it reads like a typical fiction, but behind everything that is happening is a purpose of presenting various scenarios that will help to clarify the Theory of Contraints.
I can clearly recommend this book to every analyst / consultant / manager in this company - it won’t be wasted money.