Target audience: Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters
Urs’ comment: Contains a lot of useful technics and ideas how to hold retrospectives for sprints, releases and projects. A good read for Scrum Masters and agile Coaches. However, the reading is rather boring.
ISBN: 0-9776166-4-9
Target audience: Software developers, software architects Urs’ comment: A must read for software developers and architects (in .NET). This books provides a lot of best practices, patterns and principles (e.g. SOLID). To be honest, I skipped the UML chapter and I only read across the introduction to the principles of XP (there are better books for this). But the book shines on topics such as principles of OO design and packaging and my favourite part is the design smell chapter...
Target audience: ScrumMasters, agile Coaches Urs’s comment: There are two sides to this book. On one hand, the book is full of very good advice, well explained and covered with real world scenarios and examples. And this is the reason why I have to recommend this book for anyone who wants to coach agile development. Beside descriptions on how to run an agile process (planning, daily stand-up and so on), the book explains how to improve team work and how to drive change. On the other hand...
Target audience: Speakers Urs’ Kommentar: Auch für PowerPoint Benutzer sehr informativ. Kurz und prägnant – halt wie eine gute Präsentation. Tipps eignen sich vorallem für Verkaufsgespräche, weniger für Konferenzpräsentationen. Matthias Pöhm hat eher eine radikale Haltung, darum enthält das Buch aber auch einiges an Neuigkeiten. Es hat sich definitiv gelohnt dieses Buch zu lesen. Dani’s Kommentar: Pöhm’s Buch ist eine sehr gute Ergänzung zum Presentation Zen Buch. Pöhm...
Target audience: Software Developers Urs’s comment: 210 pages of pure Uncle Bob power about what makes a real professional. While I do not agree with everything written in this book, every software developer should reflect about the topics discussed in this book: when to say “no” to a task, how to say “yes” and do what you promised, practices of a professional and much more. I like this book much more than “Clean Code” because this time there is a clear...
Target audience: Software Developers Urs’ comment: A book covering a very important topic: how to write code that won’t suck tomorrow. Therefore, I recommend reading this book. However, the book itself would have needed some additional “refactoring”. There are contradictions (probably due to different oppinions of the several authors) and a lot of repetition (especially in the chapter summing up the clean code rules). After all, it was worth reading and inspiring. ISBN:...
Target audience: everyone who is presenting in front of an audience
Urs’ comment: After “presentation zen” and “presentation zen design” which were mainly focused on the artifacts (slides), this book puts the most important part under closer inspection; the speaker. Garr Reynolds tells us how to connect with the audience, keep them engaged and how to make a lasting impression. For me, his best book so far.
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-70445-0
Target audience: Speakers Urs’ comment: Carmine Gallo (the author) is surely a big fan of Steve Jobs. Sometimes a bit too much for me. However, the book gives a very good overview of how to WOW your audience. The tips are especially useful when you have to present about products. Most of the samples are from Keynotes given by Steve Jobs (therefore the title). An easy read, funny and informative. However, if you have already read a bunch of books on presentation skills then nothing new...
Target audience: Speakers Urs’ comment: Once you have read this book, you know why you fell asleep in most presentations you attended. Provides lots of information about how to design visually engaging slides. The tips are easy to follow. A must read for presenters caring about their audience. Daniel’s comment: I really enjoyed reading this book, although it was for me sometimes a bit too ZENized. But the tips Garr Reynolds gives in this book really help you design visually...
Target audience: Speakers, Trainers, Teachers Urs’ comment: Wow! A book about how to speak in public with lots of useful tips and tricks that I never had read about before. This book is not only very informative but entertaining, too. It’s not about slides, it’s about how to get the attention of the audience, how to provoke a learning effect, how to master tricky situations and much more. If presentations are an important part of your (work) life then this book is for you...