agile development in the large

is an excellent book by Jutta Eckstein (isbn 978-0932633576). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

Quick feedback should be the first thing you introduce.

It is important that instead of the process being adopted it is adapted.

Starting with really short cycles seems to help implement the change to an agile process. If the cycles are short it is very difficult for the whole team to fall back into its old habits.

Learning and change processes are part of each other. Change is a learning process and learning is a change process.

Every agile process contains the following subtle steps
(1) reflection (awareness)
(2) learning
(3) change.

A plan is nothing; planning is everything. [Eisenhower]

If a project is on time and in budget it doesn't mean it was a successful project, but a successful estimate.

Methodologies do not produce skilled developers.

Stability is more negative than it is thought to be. [To stabilize something is to kill it]

A book is always a prevented dialogue.

more secrets of consulting

is an excellent book by Jerry Weinberg (isbn 978-0932633521). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

Consultants are hired for knowing what others don't know, so a consultant who stops learning soon decays in value.

It's always better to be a do-something rather than a know-everything.

The Wishing Wand reminds me of the ability to ask for what I want, and if necessary, to live with not getting it.

Modern psychology often scorns introspection and has become the study of other people's behaviour.

I personally think that big changes result from an accumulation of small changes.

Incongruence is stereotyped behaviour.

It takes big balance to learn small balance.

Nothing is immutably programmined into my mind - except its programmability. The ability of my mind to program itself is a far greater ability than any particular program.

Fear is one of the brakes on creativity.

In social engineering, as in all engineering, failures teach more than successes.