XPlorations
| Books for Coaches |
July, 2003 |
Coaching and Teamwork
The
Little Book of Coaching: Motivating People to Be
Winners
Blanchard, Kenneth H., and Don Shula. Harper
Business, 2001. ISBN 0-06662103-8.
A thin book with some nice quotes but not a "deep" approach.
Organizes its ideas by the COACH acronym: Conviction-driven,
Overlearning, Audible-ready, Consistency, Honesty-based.
Constantine
on Peopleware
Constantine, Larry L. Prentice Hall, 1995. ISBN
0-13331976-8.
"Great software doesn't come from tools, it comes from people."
Teamwork, project management, human-computer interaction, and
more.
Effective
Coaching
Cook, Marshall J. McGraw-Hill, 1999. ISBN
0-07-071864-4.
This is part of a line called "Briefcase Books": "Learn the 10
advantages of good coaching"; "Acquire the 12 traits of an
effective coach"; etc. This book is a little formulaic and too
focused on "supervisor as coach," but contains good ideas
nonetheless.
Peopleware:
Productive People and Teams (2/e)
DeMarco, Tom, and Timothy Lister. Dorset House,
1999. ISBN 0-9326-3343-9.
Classic work describing what really affects teams' performance: the
people, the environment, and team chemistry.
Getting
it Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge
Fisher, Roger, and Alan Sharp. HarperCollins,
1998. ISBN 0-88730-842-2.
"Lateral leadership." Purpose, thinking, learning, engagement, and
feedback, as tools for developing teams. "Ask, offer, and do" as
techniques for coaching.
Masterful
Coaching Fieldbook
Hargrove, Robert. Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2000.
ISBN 0-7879-4755-5.
Building relationships, stretch goals, and feedback; teachable
points of view. Takes somewhat of an executive coach or personal
coach viewpoint, but this doesn't overwhelm the general
message.
Mentoring:
The TAO of Giving and Receiving Wisdom
Huang, Chungliang Al, and Jerry Lynch.
HarperCollins, 1995. ISBN 0-06-21520-1.
A wisdom book… A poetic/artistic book you can come back to
many times.
Building
Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life
Solomon,Robert C., and Fernando Flores. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-512685-8.
What it means to establish trust, and the challenges of
"self-trust" and "authentic" trust.
The
Psychology of Computer Programming: Silver Anniversary
Edition
Weinberg, Gerald M. Dorset House Publishing,
1998. ISBN 0-932633-42-0.
Characteristics of programmers as individuals and in teams; egoless
programming.
Secrets
of Consulting: A Guide to Getting and Giving Advice
Successfully
Weinberg, Gerald M. Dorset House Publishing,
1985. ISBN 0-932633-01-3.
More
Secrets of Consulting: The Consultant's Tool Kit
Weinberg, Gerald M. Dorset House Publishing,
2002. ISBN 0-932633-52-8.
Gentle ways to work with teams, and metaphors for roles and aspects
of consulting.
Becoming
a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach
Weinberg, Gerald M. Dorset House Publishing,
1986. ISBN 0-932633-02-1.
Leadership, motivation, organization, and transformation.
Communication models. Congruence. Mastering yourself as a step
toward helping others.
Team Tools
The
Inner Game of Work: Focus, Learning, Pleasure, and Mobility in the
Workplace
Gallwey, W. Timothy. Random House, 2000. ISBN
0-375-75817-8.
This applies the "inner game of tennis" to work in general.
Conversational tools and other tools for understanding yourself and
others. A couple quotes: "Coaching is an art that must be learned
mostly from experience." "I had to learn how to teach less, so more
could be learned."
The
Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making
Kaner, Sam, et al. New Society Publishers, 1996.
ISBN 0-86571-347-2.
Facilitation tools, advice on meetings. Ways to build sustainable
agreements. Ways to get others' perspectives. Mechanisms for
deciding.
Project
Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Reviews
Kerth, Norman L. Dorset House Publishing, 2001.
ISBN 0-932633-44-7.
How to do end-of-project retrospectives. There's a lot of
time/concern about making sure people can feel safe enough to
contribute. It doesn't address "small" retrospectives per se but
some techniques can be adapted.
Software
for Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared
Vision
McCarthy, Jim, and Michele McCarthy.
Addison-Wesley, 2001. ISBN 0-201-60456-6.
Interesting. Uses facilitation techniques (e.g., consensus) and
goal setting in a team-centered environment.
The
Manager Pool: Patterns for Radical Leadership
Olson, Don Sherwood, and Carol L. Stimmel.
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-72583-5.
Patterns for managing software teams. Keeping a team focused, what
to do about overtime, creating a fun environment, taking
responsibility, and many others.
Improving Yourself
Intuition
at Work: Why Developing Your Gut Instincts Will Make You Better at
What You Do
Klein, Gary. Doubleday, 2002. ISBN
0385502885.
Suggests that intuition has an important role. He found that expert
firefighters used mental simulation to examine one option, rather
than systematically comparing a number of options. The book
provides decision games and other tools that can suggest ways to
improve intuition.
Mastery:
The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment
Leonard, George. Plume Books, 1991. ISBN
0-452-26756-0.
Keys to mastery; change and homeostasis; energy; and pitfalls.
Software
Craftsmanship: The New Imperative
McBreen, Pete. Addison-Wesley, 2001. ISBN
0-201-73386-2.
Software as a craft; professional growth through the apprenticeship
model of apprentice, journeyman, and master craftsman.
The
Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In
Action
Schön, Donald. Basic Books, Inc., 1983. ISBN
0-465-06878-2.
Using "reflection-in-action" to help face challenges; "design as a
reflective conversation with the situation"; generative metaphors;
the reflective stance.
Agile Methods & Techniques
Test-Driven
Development: By Example
Beck, Kent. Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. ISBN
0-32114653-0.
An introduction to the test-driven approach to design. Demonstrates
the small cycle of "make the test fail, then make the test pass,
then refactor it clean."
Extreme
Programming Explained: Embrace Change
Beck, Kent. Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. ISBN
0-201-61641-6.
The original XP book. Values and practices of XP. A good place to
start.
Agile
Software Development
Cockburn, Alistair. Addison-Wesley, 2002. ISBN
0-201-69969-9.
Software development as a "cooperative game of invention and
communication," agility and self-adaptation, people, information
radiators, and the Crystal family of methodologies.
Agile
Software Development Ecosystems
Highsmith, Jim. Addison-Wesley, 2002. ISBN
0-201-76043-6.
Agility, practices, people, collaboration, simplicity, and
adaptability. Overview of several of the agile methods, and
interviews with key figures in the agile arena.
Adventures
in C#
Jeffries, Ron. Microsoft Press, 2003.
How XP's programming approach can help you learn a new language.
Works its way through a non-trivial application (an XML
editor).
Extreme
Programming Installed
Jeffries, Ron, Ann Anderson, and Chet
Hendrickson. Addison-Wesley, 2001. ISBN 0-201-70842-6.
XP from the perspective of members of the first XP team. Circle of
Life, steering, test first by intention, "we'll try," how to
estimate anything, and more.
Agile
Software Development: Principles, Patterns, and
Practices
Martin, Robert C. Prentice Hall, 2002. ISBN
0-13-597444-5.
An exposition of the agile manifesto, and a dive into principles
important to object-oriented programming, supported with patterns
and case studies.
Agile
Software Development with Scrum
Schwaber, Ken, and Mike Beedle. Prentice Hall,
2002. ISBN 0-13-067634-9.
Scrum relies on a team self-organizing around its goals. The Scrum
approach: meet daily, use 30-day sprints, and manage the backlog
and the release. There is experience managing larger projects as
well. Scrum's values include commitment, focus, openness, respect,
and courage.
Refactoring
Workbook
Wake, William C. Addison-Wesley, 2003. ISBN
0-32110929-5.
Hands-on practice of refactoring. The first part is organized by
"smell"; the last part consists of medium-sized programs to
refactor.
Extreme
Programming Explored
Wake, William C. Addison-Wesley, 2002. ISBN
0-201-73397-8.
XP: team practices, metaphors, planning games, and daily activities
of customers, programmers, and managers.
[Version of July, 2003.]
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