Beyond Agile: Achieving Success with Situational Knowledge and Skills
Beyond Agile is for project practitioners, PMOs, and business representatives who want relevant, high-value delivery guidance. The book presents a model that provides a context-specific approach from a full spectrum of project disciplines including: lean/agile, leadership/EI, plan-driven, and industry-specific approaches. Unlike scaling models such as SAFe, LeSS, and Nexus, the Beyond Agile Model avoids agile-myopia (believing everything can be solved best by agile approaches) and buffet-syndrome (taking on too much process) by being simultaneously broader but ruthlessly selective in its recommendations.
The Beyond Agile Model has agile at its core; it also layers in additional ideas while encouraging teams to discontinue practices that no longer add sufficient value. Since there are only so many hours in the day, focussing more effort on delivery requires dropping other activities - even if they are agile. It was obvious once I saw it. The most productive teams I studied spent more time delivering and less time on agile ceremonies and other tasks. The non-obvious part was learning what to drop since it varies from team to team, and the book explains the process
Agile Illustrated: A Visual Learner's Guide to Agility
This Kindle and paperback book is a graphical introduction to the agile mindset and servant leadership behaviors for supporting agile teams.
This book is for visual thinkers who like to see the big picture before getting into details. By using mind maps, sketches and cartoons this book shows the workings of today's agile teams. It illustrates how all these processes work and how servant leadership traits link them together. It explains the Agile Manifesto values and principles along with the Declaration of Interdependence. It also covers all the domains and tasks from PMI-ACP exam to provide a comprehensive overview of agile behaviors.
Who Is This Book For?
Agile Illustrated: A Visual Learner’s Guide to Agility is for anyone charged with leading a team of people. It is for Scrum masters, project managers, team leads, and group leads.
Perfect for Visual Thinkers!
Agile Illustrated: A Visual Learner’s Guide to Agility will appeal to visual thinkers who like to conceptualize the big picture before getting into the details. These people, who are sometimes called “right-brained,” after the portion of the brain responsible for processing images, would rather be shown how something works than told in detail how it works.
If you spend a long time getting the flow of your presentations just right before you can focus on adding content and detail, then you are likely right-brained.
Interesting fact: Research by David Hyerle into visual thinking reports that 90% of the information entering the brain is visual. 40% of all nerve fibers connected to the brain are connected to the retina, and a full 20% of the entire cerebral cortex is dedicated to vision, so let’s use it!
If you think in pictures and like to see how ideas fit together this is a valuable resource. A soup-to-nuts illustrated overview of agile in just 70 colorful pages.
Buy Agile Illustrated from Amazon.
I wrote this book to help people prepare for and pass their PMI-ACP certification. Having worked on the design of the PMI-ACP credential I knew the exam tested a multitude of concepts drawn from domains such as leadership, lean, kanban and agile approaches. So, I wanted to create a source that explains all the ideas in a single consistent voice.
Alistair Cockburn and Dennis Stevens, who I worked with on the PMI-ACP Steering Committee, generously wrote the following endorsements:
“As one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto, I am delighted to see this book by Mike Griffiths. It is great that such an exam guide was prepared by someone with a deep understanding of both project management and Agile development. Personally, I hope that everyone reads this book, not just to pass the PMI-ACP exam, but to learn Agile development safely and effectively!” -
Dr. Alistair Cockburn, Manifesto for Agile Software Development Co-Author, International Consortium for Agile Co-Founder, and Member of the PMI-ACP Steering Committee
“This is a VERY enjoyable book to read, due to Mike's firm grasp of the underlying concepts of Agile, and his articulate and entertaining writing style. My favorite part is the fact that it is organized into a framework that helps all of the Agile concepts hang together, so they will be easier to recall when taking the PMI-ACP exam. But Mike's book is more than just the best PMI-ACP prep book out there. It is also the best consolidated source of Agile knowledge, tools, and techniques available today.
Even if you are not planning on sitting for the PMI-ACP exam in the near future you need to buy this book, read it, and keep it as a reference for how to responsibly be Agile!”
Dennis Stevens, PMI-ACP Steering Committee Member, PMI Agile Community of Practice Council Leader, and Partner at Leading Agile
This updated edition has new situational questions and is appropriate for study for all PMI-ACP exams taken after the March 2018 exam change.
Features of this worldwide best-selling resource include the following:
- Practice exam questions—over 100 throughout the book.
- Dozens of visuals and graphics for concept explanation.
- Identification of ‘exam significance’ for each Agile topic.
- A focus on real-world Agile project issues.
- Exclusive exercises and Tricks of the Trade®.
Arranged alphabetically by topic, this book covers the top concepts in the PMI-ACP exam with no additional fluff. Great for creating your own prioritized study plan, complete with Kanban board for tracking progress, this is for topic based learners.Here is the publisher description:
"This hands-on workbook by Mike Griffiths is the latest addition to the PMI-ACP® Exam Prep family of products. Whether you're new to agile methods or an experienced practitioner, this hands-on workbook is ideal for action-oriented, practical learners.
Experienced Agilists or ScrumMasters: This workbook is designed to be the only tool you'll need to prepare for the exam.
New to Agile Methods? This workbook will reinforce the key topics you need to know for the exam. (but you'll also want the PMI-ACP® Exam Prep book and other products available in the RMC store)
- Design your own study plan
- Decrease study time by focusing on your weak areas
- Over 200 exercises and situational quiz questions
- FREE online quiz!"
PMI-ACP Hot Topics
Spiral bound flashcards to help you study for the exam. Here is the product info:
“If you are looking for a way to prepare for the PMI-ACP® exam that fits into your busy schedule, these flashcards are it. Now you can study anywhere with RMC's portable and extremely valuable Hot Topics PMI-ACPsm Exam Flashcards. Written by Mike Griffiths, PMI Agile Certified Practitioner and original member of the PMI-ACP® Steering Committee, this flip book offers over 175+ of the most important and difficult to recall PMI-ACP® exam-related terms and concepts—in portable format!”
PMI-ACP FASTrack
Exam Simulator, know what to expect before you step into the exam room. Here is the product info:
“PM FASTrack® PMI-ACP® Exam is the fourth product in RMC's exam simulation software series, and is developed using the same, best-selling technology platform. The program's database of 500+ questions allows you to filter questions by domain and keyword—and practice with randomized, timed 120 question tests with the same balance of questions from each domain as the real exam! Other features include free question bank updates, and exam reporting and archiving. All questions are also cross-referenced to the exam guide, so you may quickly and easily return to the book and work on your weak areas. Why be surprised when you take the actual exam? Find your gaps before the exam finds them for you!”