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Title: Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders (Agile Software Development Series)
ISBN: 0321268776
Author:
Jean Tabaka
Publicate Date: 2006-01-16
Publish: 2006-01-16
List Price: $49.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $20.50
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $18.50
Amazon Merchant Price: $42.70
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Great for the Agile Coach's Toolbox
Having had the pleasure of seeing Jean in action at a CSM class years ago and having read her book I can tell you that she is passionate about helping teams succeed. I was given a copy of the book when it was first published and it was easy to see Jean's passion play out in the book. I have used this book over the past couple of years to help me better coach teams and traditional PMs make the transition to an Agile execution model. In my mind this book should be part of every Lean/Agile consultant's/coach's toolbox.
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2: A great reference book for working with teams
I've been lucky enough to meet Jean Tabaka before I'd read her book. She's a very humble and knowledgeable lady, and you can see both of those attributes in her book about effective collaboration. It's probably heavy reading for some people. For the right kind of people, I imagine it's very easy to digest. If you're working on projects in a team, especially as a team leader or a project manager, it's a great book that equips you with lots of practices and tools that come in handy every single day. Even if you're not working in any of aforementioned roles, as a member of any team, it offers lots of gems worth digging for.
Don't be daunted by the book's thickness - Tabaka's laid the four hundred or so pages well with a decent index and table of contents, making it easy to jump around to topics that interest you. I fortunately had a few hours in the airport and the plane to give me a good chance of reading the detail of the sections that interested me.
A lot of the topics that Takaba covers are very relevant to any environment in which you're working and even more so in agile development teams where collaboration is key. I definitely relate to many of the stories that she talks about, littering the book and giving real examples of the tools in practice. It's well written and many of the models are useful straight away.
There's a little bit of repetition - some of it probably because it's written in a way that allows you to digest chapters on their own, and maybe so that it really lets the lessons sink in. It also talks about a number of topics that aren't directly related to facilitation though are still useful in their own way for setting a better context such as leadership and specific agile methodologies. In a way, a lot of the practices draw from many other disciplines and although not necessarily completely new, are presented in a very easy to digest manner.
I'd definitely add this to my recommended reading list, especially for people who want to improve the effectiveness of their teams.
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3: A good introduction to team dynamics
I found Jean's book to provide a good introduction into team dynamics and fostering collaborative, self-empowered teams. She touches on topics like DISC and other personality studies. She offers some discussion on team evoloution (from formation to real high-performance).
The 2nd half of the book has a lot of perscriptive meeting formats and agendas. It's helpful for individuals who are starting out with managing a team (or experienced team members who want to refresh on the subject).
The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 star is because while it's generally informative and easy to read - I felt that it didn't offer as much value for it's price. A good majority of the book is templated agendas and meeting formats, there's a few sections on strategies within meetings (like how to handle someone not paying attention gracefully). I would of liked to of seen more in way of that for the price of the book.
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4: Techniques to ensure effective collaboration
Jean Tabaka's COLLABORATION EXPLAINED: FACILITATION SKILLS FOR SOFTWARE PROJECT LEADERS tells how to build an agile project which fosters techniques for ensuring effective collaboration. Jean Tabaka has been studying and using agile environments since its early days: her guidelines and templates for project events cover all areas and aspects of methodology and application, applying concepts to business practices and special circumstances project managers face with their development teams. A recommended, real-world project pick.
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5: Put some polish where it counts
Jean Tabaka has done a great service to Software Development. The highest cost meetings where everyone is attendance can be at least twice as valuable when well run and Jean gives us some great guides to make these fruitful. This is especially true with Agile methods that recommends frequent time-boxed meetings to evaluate plans, inspect them and adapt to the changing conditions our fast-paced environments introduce. I have adopted many ideas and have found them very useful. Finally, this kind of skill is what many technically trained people need most for creating a truly collaborative environment.
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