Recommended.

With more than two decades in the wild, Agile Software Development is no longer in its youth; we would expect to know its whereabouts well by now. And yet, a constant adaptation to change is at its core, so the term agile is continually changing and evolving. In this context, a new book on agile practices is always welcome.

Doc Norton’s book also captures some of that dichotomy between old and new, between bad and good Agile. A key message that the book delivers is that velocity is often misused; it is frequently treated as a performance metric (sometimes as the only performance metric) and seldom used as a tool to drive good behaviour. Doc spends the first part of the book discussing anti-patterns for agile teams. After explaining these anti-patterns, the book focuses on providing multiple metrics (like cycle time and throughput) for tracking progress in agile workflows. The idea is to use several metrics to monitor progress and assess whether the team is on track or needs adjustment. The team should focus on agile principles, learning, flow, and keeping track of what matters (which may be different from team to team).

The book is well written; it provides good explanations and helpful examples. It can be a pleasure to read. The shortcomings seem relatively minor. At times, the book feels more opinion-driven than evidence-based. Also, it does not provide clear guidance to teams that are not releasing regularly to customers and where feedback is infrequent or inconsistent (if not completely absent). Overall, it’s a concise, helpful read that challenges assumptions and encourages more meaningful metrics in agile delivery.

Website: https://pragprog.com/titles/d-dnescape/escape-velocity/