Does anyone know to what kind of books or reference is the author talking about when talking about the "15 years of free literature on how to run large-scale online projects"
This article is about psychological patterns related to task management and productivity. The book you linked to seems about software messaging system design.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Frederick P. Brooks
* still relevant re: people are the key to getting things done; understand how people work together.
Both of those books are about WIP (work in progress). The Goal describes a systematic way to figure out where your production process is getting bottlenecked, and then how to alleviate the constraint and improve overall throughput. The first step is to identify the largest pile of WIP waiting for a particular process step.
The Phoenix Project extends this same methodology to IT processes, which is challenging because unlike physical production processes the workflow (and piles of WIP) are often hidden in databases and ticketing systems (which have an infinite capacity!). Furthermore, the process steps are often not even systematically documented, which makes it impossible to pin down your capacity in the first place.
Personal productivity is definitely more like the latter, since we are capable of holding quite a bit of invisible WIP in our brains.
I was about to suggest that book, too.
Also, check out this blog post:
http://agilitrix.com/2011/03/how-to-make-your-culture-work/
which outlines some of the ideas presented in the book "The Reengineering Alternative: A plan for making your current culture work" by William Schneider.
He seems to be pushing his book and possibly at the end his school:
"Years ago I wrote a book – IT's All about the People: Technology Management That Overcomes Disaffected People, Stupid Processes and Deranged Corporate Cultures – that focused on the human element in technology. The premise is as correct today as it was then."
Projects are hard and deal with the unexpected. If you've never done anything like whatever you are trying to do before, you will encounter delays. These are really not failures -- in fact a lot of projects are "finished" with many additional "add on" pieces and enhancements scoped for future work.
Tellingly, companies that do the same thing over and over again (video game companies come to mind), are actually pretty good at delivering on time and on budget. With a stable and experienced workforce, the right corporate culture and reusable work breakdown structures, it's all possible.
Are you already highly productive, but want to be even more productive? You should read about systems and methodologies, and implement one rigorously.
Recommended: 4 Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank - breaks down the customer development lifecycle into actionable deliverables.
Do you feel like you're not being productive or shipping? You should read about procrastination and then diligently work to fix it, not spend more time studying GTD-type systems.
Recommended: Procrastination by Jane B. Burka and Lenora M. Yuen - the essential book on understanding and correcting your procrastination.
http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Second-...
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