He does go on doesn't he?

Scrumban And Other Essays on Kanban Systems for Lean Software Development by Corey Ladas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I feel bad in some ways for this book. It came just after reading the Kanban book and also the rspec book. So when I picked this book up I was looking forward to stretching my legs intellectually. Sadly, this book wasn’t what I wanted. Too simple in some ways and not simple enough in others this book suffers from being an advanced book on agile (by requiring pre-knowledge of SCRUM/XP and Lean thinking) yet also rebuilding arguments eloquently made by others in setting the basis of the book. Some of the analogies seemed well-worn too (coffee-cup kanban example I’m looking at you).

As an aside, please, if you’re writing a book about Kanban don’t take any more pictures of the post-it notes! I get tokens but it makes it hard to read the damn tokens with your photography. Just do a diagram and have done.

It did help clarify some of my thinking on Kanban but was it worth the effort? Only just.

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The Complete Nemesis The Warlock by Pat Mills
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I always had a soft spot for Nemesis and this book filled in a lot of stuff I didn’t know. However there were some low points. With age I found less to like about Torquemada’s resurrections (seriously couldn’t he just escape?) and some of the politics feels patronising.

Saying that I loved the ideas, the great asides and the ABC Warriors. It was great nostalgia.

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The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book tore me in two. There’s not a shadow of doubt in my mind that the information in this book is great. More so it’s given me a vocabulary for describing things I knew were good. Also on the plus side there’s a good practical feel and some variation in business models and sectors which stems the fatigue of storytelling.

However, as someone (John Barton?) mentions in their review, there’s some bias (understandable but none-the-less there) to success and there’s an over-reliance on IMVU as a case study. A second edition may fill out with more diverse case studies and you’d hope some failures were examined. Finally, the Lean Startup also suffers from the hyperbole of any business book. You don’t sell an improvement, you sell nirvana.

Overall go into this book with your eyes open and prepare to feel sold at sometimes and this book will give you some good things. I’d read it again and I’ve used it in conversation with others.

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