Additional Resources

U.S. Marine Corps Staff. 1989. Warfighting: The U.S. Marine Corp Book of Strategy. This short book decribes the U.S. Marine Corp approach to planning and operations. I find many parallels to software projects in the description.

Reinertsen, Donald G. 2009. The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development. This book contains an extended discussion of throughput or “flow.” Reinertsen makes a compelling argument that not focusing on flow for product development is, as he puts it, “wrong to its very core.”

DeMarco, Tom. 2002. Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency. DeMarco argues the case for not fully loading staff.

Storlie, Chad, 2010. “Manage Uncertainty with Commander’s Intent,” Harvard Business Review, November 3, 2010. This article provides a slightly more detailed description of Commander’s Intent than the one I’ve given in this chapter.

Maxwell, John C. 2007. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Maxwell’s book is a good counterpoint to the sometimes overly analytical approach to leadership that I see from software leaders. He includes key advice, such as, “The heart comes before the head” and “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”