Books (paperback and ebook formats)

Edited by Kevin Aguanno
Contributors: Scott Ambler, Alistair Cockburn, Larry Constantine, David Hussman, Ron Jeffries, et al.

Are you being asked to manage a project with unclear requirements? High levels of change? A team using Extreme Programming or other Agile Methods? If you are a project manager or team leader who is interested in learning the secrets of successfully controlling and delivering agile projects, then this book was written for you. From learning how agile projects are different from traditional projects, to detailed guidance on a number of agile management techniques and how to introduce them onto your own projects, this book contains the insider secrets from some of the industry experts - the visionaries who developed the agile methodologies in the first place.

by Kevin Aguanno

Is your wallet empty? And you still need to boost your team's performance? Building team morale is difficult in these tough economic times. Kevin Aguanno helps you solve the team morale problem with ideas for rewarding your project team without breaking the bank. Learn over 100 ways you can reward your project team and individual team members for just a few dollars. Full of innovative (and cheap!) ideas. Even with the best reward ideas, rewards can fall flat if they are not suitable to the person, the organization, the situation, or the magnitude of the accomplishment. Learn the four key factors that will maximize the impact of your rewards, and guarantee a delighted recipient.

by Kevin Aguanno

Wondering what all this talk about "Agile" is about? This eBook provides a brief overview of the business reasons behind the evolution of agile development methods. The book discusses why agile methods were developed in the first place, what is different about agile methods, and the major benefits to tbe gained from employing them, including reducing risk, increasing control, speeding up communications, and improving customer satisfaction. An excellent resource executives, managers, and developers who are new to agile methods and want to understand their common foundation.

by Kevin Aguanno

Facing resistance when implementing new development process changes within an organization? Sometimes big changes need to be packaged to make them appear to be minor adjustments to the current process. This book shows you how! This Palm Reader (PDB) eBook includes specific tips on introducing new development methods to your team and to your organization. It includes specific examples of introducing software development processes such as Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, and other agile methods. The Stealth Methodology Adoption approach, however, is applicable to more than just software development projects -- you can use these techniques for most development process changes.

Audiobooks (Audio CD and MP3 formats)

by Kevin Aguanno

This recording will outline the underlying principles of Agile Development and details of how it differs from traditional development projects. Then, using an agile project management method called Scrum, it will illustrate how agile management methods used in software development may be extended to projects from other application areas outside of I/T. Listeners will come away from the session with a high-level understanding of the Agile Development philosophy and how it differs from traditional development approaches, enough of an understanding of Scrum to be able to determine if and how it could be implemented on a project, and a list of resources for further information on Agile Development and Scrum.

by Kevin Aguanno

Think you've heard it all? How about this one: a high-risk application development and systems integration project where the team is being asked to pull off something that has never been done before -- anywhere. The team is made up of over 200 people in 17 cities in four countries. With only five months to complete the seemingly impossible task, how did they do it?

by Kevin Aguanno

1000% over budget. 2 years late. We've all heard about projects where the original budget and schedule were exceeded by orders of magnitude. How could this happen given competent project management? Whether in government or private industry, project managers face a huge challenge when confronted with continually-changing requirements. How can you plan when the WBS keeps changing? Traditional project management approaches suggest that we take a snapshot of the requirements as a baseline, and then use change control in an attempt to minimize the impact of any shifting requirements. Sometimes, however, these changes are a reality that the project sponsor has to accommodate. The new Agile Project Management methods help deal with these situations. Listeners of this session will learn the founding principles and techniques of Agile Project Management with examples from real-world projects that used these methods to control changing requirements.

by Kevin Aguanno

Project closeout always presents challenges: getting final approvals, performing administrative and contract closure, capturing lessons learned, and others. In a world moving at the speed of e-business, efficient project closure is a must and may even give you a competitive edge. This presentation covers best practices for getting final signoffs and closing out IT projects.

by Kevin Aguanno

Are you trying to adopt agile methods into your organization? Are you facing significant resistance from your teams or business management? Don't try to find your own way -- learn from those who have gone before you and take the easy road to agile adoption. In this live recording of a one-hour seminar on agile adoption, agile project management expert Kevin Aguanno shows you how to slowly phase in agile techniques into your organization and make them appear as if they are compatible with your current processes. In this recording, he advocates not pulling in a whole new methodology in one massive change, but rather adopting specific agile techniques, one-by-one to into your projects until the team members and stakeholders are using agile methods without realizing it. He suggests specific agile techniques that you should phase in early in your transformation, and how to "package" them to avoid objections from the business stakeholders. Full of real-life stories, he brings the subject to life and turns abstract concepts into practical next steps.

by Kevin Aguanno

Running out of funds? This recording tells you how you can stretch your rewards budget by spending it more effectively, leveraging your investment to maximize the performance of your team... and your organization.

by Kevin Aguanno

During requirements gathering and solution design, one of the most common techniques used to create a shared vision is modeling. The agile management movement has turned its attention to modeling in an effort to streamline the process and to more efficiently deliver needed stakeholder value during the modeling process.  The result is a practice called agile modeling that focuses on creating models tailored to the specific information needs of their consumers, using language and techniques shared by both creator and consumer, and employing collaborative modeling strategies.  In this short recording of a teleseminar, learn the underlying principles of agile modeling, some practical techniques that are used, and how you can get started today.

by Kevin Aguanno

Tired of wasting time creating documents that no one will ever read? Spending hours fussing with documents to make them “perfect” only to find out that they didn’t include the right content? Spinning your wheels updating documents to keep them current? Agile Documentation is composed of a set of practices that will help you document only the necessary things, in the most efficient way, for exactly the right audience, and in a way that minimizes ongoing updates. 

CD-ROMs

by Kevin Aguanno

A supplemental resource kit on CD-ROM containing sample templates for agile projects in MS Excel and MS Project formats plus the Agile Auction Game.