My boss gave me an unasked for book, User Story Mapping from O'Reilly. I wasn't sure what to think about it, although only 45 pages in I can honestly say even as we're reading the book we're not exactly following the practices. There's a very compressed version of Ben Horowitz's Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager on page xviii and xix. The bits about reference customers versus competitors, (not) prioritizing, and prototypes every day are all obvious failures for us (at least in my projects).
A bit evangelistic, or more accurately perhaps a bit motivational, but Agile books usually are. I'll chat about it a bit more as I get further in, although the forwards go up to xliv, so I'm already 44 pages (a 1/5) in before the book even gets started.
But my first question for my manager was why did he give me a book with a Lilac-breasted Roller on the cover, known for it's life-long monogamy? Was it a not so subtle hint that I (and my co-manager, who also received a copy) wasn't leaving the company until I retire or die? That doesn't upset me, but it's disturbing to have your manager say it with a book. He told me he was going to respond, and then just didn't know what to say to that and gave up, which he was pretty sure was what I was up to all along. Look at that, he hasn't even cracked open his copy yet and we're already embracing the core tenant of mutual understanding. Win!
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