5 reviews for What Drives Quality – 1st edition (eBook)

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Shirly Ronen-Harel, Co-Founder & Agile / DevOps Coach – WeChange – July 21, 2018

   I like the fact that, finally, requirements practices are recognized in the book as part of quality. As an agile coach I give a lot of attention to them. And of course, the concept of the team as described in the book, which is an important driver for quality. i will recommend the book for sure.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   William R. Corcoran, Editor of the Firebird Forum – December 14, 2018

   What Drives Quality was a delight to read. It flows well. It is about a lot more than software quality, touching on many of the ideas that have been tried and true for quality in general. Ben Linders has a charming style of writing that is both challenging and thought provoking. I recommend the book for anyone who wants to achieve quality or wants to avoid being the victim of self-inflicted or other quality issues.

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Shane Hastie, Director of Agile Learning Programs at ICAgile – December 14, 2018

   Ben’s book is a reflection of his deep knowledge and experience helping teams and organisations identify what quality is in software, why it matters and how to optimise the right qualities for a product. He explores how quality is impacted by the organisational processes and from the perspective of the individual contributor, and gives concrete, tangible advice on how to make better products which meet customer needs effectively. He does this in an entertaining and interesting writing style.

4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Shiv Sivaguru, Advisor and Coach at PM Power Consulting (verified owner) – December 14, 2018

   Congratulations on putting together a veritable index of various resources related to understanding aspects that drive quality in a software development lifecycle. This is a must-read for all persons contributing to the development or enhancement of software.

5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Jens Woinowski – January 21, 2021

   TL;DR: Great book on software quality, whether for application in agile teams or others. Short and comprehensive, yet useful and challenging.

   This book is a resource for anybody who wants to understand software quality and is looking for practices to achieve it. It is a comprehensive overview of the challenges on the way to quality software products and how to tackle them. Ben Linders’ long experience as a software and quality professional is clearly visible throughout the whole work.

   The two main sections are a “Deep Dive into Quality” and “Quality Software with Agile Teams.”

   In the deep dive section, Ben Linders introduces general concepts of software quality and the Quality Factors Model. This part also contains a lot of references for even deeper discussions of any quality related topic. This makes the book a starting point for further learning for people new to software quality and a memory refresher for experienced readers.

   As remarked in the foreword by Dr. Bill Curtis of the Consortium for IT Software Quality, the book “is not a compendium of everything known about software quality. Rather it is a succinct summary […].” The only downside to this is that people completely new to software quality may be shied away by the sheer amount of things that are covered only briefly.

   Thus the book simply reflects an old dilemma of software quality: many IT professionals intuitively know what it means but they do neither fully grasp the holistic challenges it creates nor do they understand the lingo of quality professionals. This professional language may also make the book a little harder to read if one is not a quality expert or at least an enthusiast.

   The second main section – about agile approaches – is the true heart of the book. It contains a large amount of practical experience, applicable examples and real-life case studies. It bridges the gap between the complex challenges of quality outlined in the deep dive section and the hands-on world of agile practitioners.

   The two biggest assets of this section are rightfully at the end of it: agile retrospectives and root cause analysis. The retrospectives discussion wets the appetite for Ben Linders’ earlier work about agile retrospectives (if one does not know it already, that is). The root cause analysis addresses a potential weak spot of less rigid ways of working, namely the fixing of first order symptoms instead of systemic, deep rooted issues. Root cause analysis is also a gentle introduction to true systems thinking, which is sometimes forgotten over the agile strive for simplicity.

   Because the agile section is easier to consume, a reader new to software quality might consider to read the agile section first and the quality deep dive second. This gives a more bottom-up approach to the topic. Similarly, agile practitioners may like this reading order better as well. It appeals more to the empirical mindset than the theory first approach of the book.

   There are two things missing that could make the book an even more valuable resource. Firstly, it might benefit from some graphical elements, e.g. overviews of the Quality Factors Model in various degrees of detail. Secondly, there is one thing not discussed in any detail that drives both software engineers and quality experts: the passion for quality, including the personal and professional commitment to deliver it. This intrinsic motivator is the one thing that can make people tackle the obstacles on the way to quality.

   The latter is addressed by the bonus Agile Quality Cards game which Ben Linders offers on his homepage. These cards help software teams – and not only those working in an agile mode –approach quality from a more light-hearted angle of attack.

   Final remark: this is not a book to read once and then to forget. It deserves a deeper study and that one tries out the practical approaches in real life.

   • 

     Ben Linders (store manager) – January 22, 2021

     Thank you very much Jens for your extensive review of my book What Drives Quality and the Agile Quality Coaching Cards.

     Writing the deep dive chapter posed challenges, one being that there are so many things that I wanted to have included. I’ve been working on a second edition of the book that actually goes deeper on some of the stuff in this chapter (making it feel less of an overview and more practical), it’s available on Leanpub: What Drives Quality – Second Edition.

     Very happy to see that you include the Agile Quality Coaching Cards in your review. As you mentioned, they make it easier for teams to discuss quality aspects and practices. They can be used stand-alone or can be combined with the Agile Self-assessment Game to add gamification which enhances engagement and involvement.

     Again thank you very much for the book review!