Agile Excellence for Product Managers: A Guide to Creating Winning Products with Agile Development Teams

by Greg Cohen

Organizations are constantly struggling with complex development projects and are in search for a few, straightforward, and easy to learn methods to help deal with their problems. For this reason, more and more software companies are rapidly turning to Agile development to cope with fast changing markets, unknown or changing product requirements, borderless competition, and to solve complex problems. Yet little has been written to guide product managers through the transition in working with Agile teams and the numerous benefits that it affords. 'Agile Excellence for Product Managers' is a plain speaking guide on how to work with Agile development teams to achieve phenomenal product success. It covers the why and how of agile development (including Scrum, XP, and Lean, ) the role of product management, release planning, release management, road mapping, creating and prioritizing a product backlog, documentation, product launches, organizational implications and more. It is a must read for product managers making the switch to Agile development as well as product owners and project managers looking for better ways to organize and lead in their companies.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Software

152 pages, Paperback

First published February 9, 2010

Reviews

[Kristen Considine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was quick and to the point. Unfortunately, it was lighter on material and lacked the depth I was looking for. But if you’re newer to Agile, this book is a quick introduction full of easy reminders.

[Ali Julian Romano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another school book - kept it super understandable and to the point! Definitely the best guide to agile I have seen.

[Frank Tarzanin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Starting Agile Book!

If you are a product manager and looking to learn how to do agile or introduce agile into your organization this is the book for you.

I've done agile at several different companies and they all do agile differently. This book does a great job of explaining why. It explains what best practices are, why they are and often explains why they at times are not adopted and why this is ok.

It also does a great job of identifying how to introduce agile into your organization. How to pick teams, what to do to start the process and how to tell if your team is adopting agile or having challenges.

I don't give many books a 5 star rating but this one is well deserved.

[Joseph Draschil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book on product managers working in an agile development environment. Greg has tons of experience firsthand and consulting and much of what he says seems to come directly from having seen what works and doesn't work.

My preferred approach to product management and development is more on the Lean Startup/Customer Development side. Plenty of the insights apply to Lean, as well. Greg even includes sections discussing Xtreme Programming and Lean.

I'll be keeping it on my desk as a reference point.

[Alaeddin Hallak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good primer for agile and specifically product management role in agile. A business analyst usually wears that hat that's why I was interested in reading. Very accessible and to-the-point content with proper references for further readings. Recommended for agile learners and practitioners.

[Keith Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's missing the word "Software" from the title. Although these techniques can be used with other engineering disciplines, the author sticks completely within the realm of software development.

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book for someone new to Agile or new to Product Management. Ultimately, one can't learn how to be a Product Manager from a book, but reading a book like this definitely won't hurt.

[Nacho Bassino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro para repasar algunos conceptos, corto y al grano.

[Bob Schatz]

Handy book for Product Owners. Greg did a good job of capturing the essence of what it takes to be a good Product Owner.

[Stephen Morse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for an overview on how to make Agile work in your company. Looking forward to the next read.

[A. Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, concise and to the point. Good book for product managers!

[Johan Oskarsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good start, works for smaller organizations. For the new agile product owner.