Resources

The Goal - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

The Process of On-going Improvement described in this underpins everything PatchSpace does

It's Not Luck - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Strategies for dealing with marketing and sales contstraints; also introduces the TOC Thinking Processes

Certain to Win - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

The military strategy of John Boyd applied to business; explains how to use rapid feedback in a competitive environment

Out of the Crisis - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

A call to action to rescue western industry, by one of the major influencers of Japanese industry. Deming demands better leadership, and constant efforts to improve quality.

Maverick! - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

The extraordinary story of what happens when you ask "Why?" about every corporate policy you have

The Logical Thinking Process - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Dettmer's guide on how to use the thinking process tools from Theory of Constraints. PatchSpace applies these tools to solve our own business problems and help our clients too.

The Mythical Man-Month - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Classic text on the management of complex software projects

Waltzing With Bears - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Origin of the term "risk management is project management for grownups". Good reading if you've ever been in an environment where uncertainty was unacceptable.

Kanban - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Practical guide to the history and application of Lean Product Development in software. Explains the Kanban Method, which is both the development process and a framework for introducing continuous improvement.

Manage Your Project Portfolio - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Lean management in a multi-project environment

Managing the Design Factory - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Theoretical but very practical tools for managing any design process

The Principles of Product Development Flow - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

The state of the art in Lean Product Development. This is a highly abstract piece, as each principle can be applied in many contexts. But equally, it's of immense practical importance. This is one of the main works PatchSpace uses to validate our Lean-Agile process.

Extreme Programming Explained - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

A classic on Agile Software Development. Time only seems to validate the ideas in this.

The Art of Agile Development - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

A very detailed look at how to implement Extreme Programming

User Stories Applied - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Description of the User Stories approach to gathering requirements in an Agile process

Test Driven Development by Example - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Clear introduction to TDD, focusing on the very fine mechanics. No real coverage of mocks, however.

Refactoring - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

The mechanics of refactoring, presented as a catalogue. Also available in a Ruby edition.

Working Effectively with Legacy Code - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

The Feathers definition of "Legacy Code" is "code without tests". The book is a set of strategies for safely getting legacy code under test before being able to refactor it fully. Many of the ideas are broadly applicable, although some are only relevant in languages that do static type checks.

Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

Brilliant guide on how to design object-oriented systems with TDD and mock objects. Also sneaks in a refactoring of a system to the hexagonal/ports-and-adapters architecture.

Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

A catalogue of low-level design design decisions you face in everyday coding. In typical Kent Beck style, this breaks the subject down into its finest-grained principles. This would serve as an excellent basis for any set of coding standards (in any language).

Domain-Driven Design - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

A process for modelling software that captures the business domain as directly as possible in the code. Worth reading just for Ubiquitous Language.

Agile Software Development: Principles, Patterns, and Practices - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

While it now feels dated in some ways (the use of Java and C++ biases the patterns), it is an excellent guide to OOP design principles.

The Timeless Way of Building - on Amazon UK • on Goodreads

The origin of pattern languages. Profound implications for the way we design everything, not just architecture and code.