Top 100 Agile Books (Edition 2012)

Note: this is an old list. Go here for the Top 100 Agile Books 2013.

It took me four hours, three coffees, two toilet breaks, and one unpredictable wi-fi connection, but here it is… the annual Top 100 Agile Books 2012, based on ratings from Amazon and GoodReads.

There are some amazing changes at the top of the list this year. Most notable is the new entry at #1 of The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries. Clearly deserved, as the whole Agile community has been talking about it all year.

But that’s not all.

Specification by Example, by Gojko Adzic, makes a spectacular jump to the 2nd slot in the list. The Scrum Field Guide, by Mitch Lacey, has skyrocketed into the list at #7. And The Culture Game, by Dan Mezick, also makes a remarkable new entry at #39.

As for the rest, I suggest you see for yourself…

Are you curious to know what managers can do in an Agile organization? 

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Management 3.0

Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders

(For last year’s list see: Top 100 Agile Books, Edition 2011)

TY	LY	Title	Author(s)	GR	Year
1	–	The Lean Startup	Eric Ries		2011
2	32	Specification by Example: How Successful Teams Deliver the Right Software	Gojko Adzic		2011
3	5	Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum	Mike Cohn		2009
4	1	The Art of Unit Testing: With Examples in .Net	Roy Osherove		2009
5	9	The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software	Jonathan Rasmusson		2010
6	2	Agile Estimating and Planning	Mike Cohn		2005
7	–	The Scrum Field Guide: Practical Advice for Your First Year	Mitch Lacey		2012
8	7	Agile Software Development, Principles, Patterns, and Practices	Robert C. Martin		2002
9	6	Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship	Robert C. Martin		2008
10	8	Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code	Martin Fowler, et al.		1999
11	3	Working Effectively with Legacy Code	Michael Feathers		2004
12	10	The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master	Andrew Hunt, David Thomas		1999
13	50	Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation	Jez Humble, David Farley		2010
14	12	Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests	Steve Freeman, Nat Pryce		2009
15	4	Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business	David J. Anderson		2010
16	15	Scrum and XP from the Trenches	Henrik Kniberg		2007
17	–	Agile in a Flash: Speed-Learning Agile Software Development *)	Jeff Langr, Tim Ottinger		2011
18	11	User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development	Mike Cohn		2004
19	34	The Clean Coder	Robert C. Martin		2011
20	17	Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software	Eric Evans		2003
21	14	The Art of Agile Development	James Shore, Shane Warden		2007
22	13	The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development	Donald G. Reinertsen		2009
23	45	Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders	Jurgen Appelo		2011
24	16	Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit	Mary Poppendieck, Tom Poppendieck		2003
25	22	Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management	Scott Berkun		2008
26	44	The Elements of Scrum	Chris Sims, Hillary Louise Johnson		2011
27	29	xUnit Test Patterns: Refactoring Test Code	Gerard Meszaros		2007
28	93	Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise	Dean Leffingwell		2010
29	18	Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#	Robert C. Martin, Micah Martin		2006
30	33	Managing the Design Factory	Donald G. Reinertsen		1997
31	20	Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash	Mary Poppendieck, Tom Poppendieck		2006
32	26	Agile Coaching	Rachel Davies, Liz Sedley		2009
33	21	Practices of an Agile Developer: Working in the Real World	Venkat Subramaniam, Andy Hunt		2005
34	–	Test Driven Development for Embedded C *)	James Grenning		2011
35	69	Bridging the Communication Gap: Specification by Example and Agile Acceptance Testing	Gojko Adzic		2009
36	24	Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management	Johanna Rothman, Esther Derby		2005
37	35	Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great	Esther Derby, Diana Larsen		2006
38	25	Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams	Alistair Cockburn		2004
39	31	Writing Effective Use Cases	Alistair Cockburn		2000
40	27	Applied Software Project Management	Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene		2005
41	–	The Culture Game: Tools for the Agile Manager	Dan Mezick		2012
42	48	The Concise Executive Guide to Agile	Israel Gat		2010
43	30	Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects	Johanna Rothman		2009
44	19	Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams	Lisa Crispin, Janet Gregory		2009
45	38	Refactoring to Patterns	Joshua Kerievsky		2004
46	40	The Productive Programmer	Neal Ford		2008
47	39	Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (1st+2nd Edition)	Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres		1999
48	42	Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager’s Guide	Craig Larman		2003
49	62	Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play	Luke Hohmann		2006
50	92	Agile Game Development with Scrum	Clinton Keith		2010
51	58	Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition	Lyssa Adkins		2010
52	–	Lessons in Agile Management: On the Road to Kanban	David J. Anderson		2012
53	36	Agile Project Management with Scrum	Ken Schwaber		2004
54	51	Requirements by Collaboration	Ellen Gottesdiener		2002
55	97	Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams	Jutta Eckstein		2010
56	–	Agile Project Management For Dummies	Mark C. Layton		2012
57	46	Test Driven Development: By Example	Kent Beck		2002
58	52	Manage It!: Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management	Johanna Rothman		2007
59	28	Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products (2nd Edition)	Jim Highsmith		2009
60	55	Leading Lean Software Development: Results Are not the Point	Mary Poppendieck, Tom Poppendieck		2009
61	–	Lean from the Trenches: Managing Large-Scale Projects with Kanban	Henrik Kniberg		2011
62	47	Agile Software Development with Scrum	Ken Schwaber, Mike Beedle		2001
63	54	Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development	James O. Coplien, Neil B. Harrison		2004
64	–	The Power of Scrum	Jeff Sutherland, Rini van Solingen, Eelco Rustenburg		2011
65	–	Liftoff: Launching Agile Teams & Projects	Diana Larsen, Ainsley Nies		2011
66	37	Agile Adoption Patterns: A Roadmap to Organizational Succes	Amr Elssamadisy		2008
67	41	Agile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products that Customers Love	Roman Pichler		2010
68	49	Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk	Paul M. Duvall, Steve Matyas, Andrew Glover		2007
69	56	Ship it! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects	Jared Richardson, William A. Gwaltney		2005
70	99	Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises	Dean Leffingwell		2007
71	59	Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders	Jean Tabaka		2006
72	60	Beyond Software Architecture: Creating and Sustaining Winning Solutions	Luke Hohmann		2003
73	78	Agile Excellence for Product Managers: A Guide to Creating Winning Products with Agile Development Teams	Greg Cohen		2010
74	43	Stand Back and Deliver: Accelerating Business Agility	Pollyanna Pixton, Niel Nickolaisen, Todd Little, Kent McDonald		2009
75	61	Changing Software Development: Learning to Become Agile	Allan Kelly		2008
76	76	The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility	Michele Sliger, Stacia Broderick		2008
77	57	Kanban and Scrum – Making the Most of Both	Henrik Kniberg, Mattias Skarin		2010
78	–	Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process	Kenny Rubin		2012
79	94	The Enterprise Unified Process: Extending the Rational Unified Process	Scott W. Ambler, John Nalbone, Michael J. Vizdos		2005
80	23	Beautiful Testing: Leading Professionals Reveal How They Improve Software	Adam Goucher, Tim Riley		2009
81	53	Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum	Craig Larman, Bas Vodde		2008
82	63	Just Enough Requirements Management: Where Software Development Meets Marketing	Alan Mark Davis		2005
83	91	Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life	Jim Benson, Tonianne DeMaria Barry		2011
84	66	Extreme Programming Installed	Ron Jeffries, Ann Anderson, Chet Hendrickson		2000
85	67	Beautiful Teams: Inspiring and Cautionary Tales from Veteran Team Leaders	Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene		2009
86	65	Implementation Patterns	Kent Beck		2006
87	64	Agility and Discipline Made Easy: Practices from OpenUP and RUP	Per Kroll, Bruce MacIsaac		2006
88	68	Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design	Scott W. Ambler, Pramodkumar J. Sadalage		2006
89	75	Test Driven: TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers	Lasse Koskela		2007
90	71	Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game (2nd Edition)	Alistair Cockburn		2006
91	74	Emergent Design: The Evolutionary Nature of Professional Software Development	Scott L. Bain		2008
92	73	Becoming Agile: …in an Imperfect World	Greg Smith, Ahmed Sidky		2008
93	79	Managing Agile Projects	Kevin J. Aguanno		2005
94	–	Software in 30 Days: How Agile Managers Beat the Odds…	Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland		2012
95	–	Essential Skills for the Agile Developer	Alan Shalloway, Scott Bain, Ken Pugh, Amir Kolsky		2011
96	70	Managing Agile Projects	Sanjiv Augustine		2005
97	–	Business Patterns for Software Developers	Allan Kelly		2012
98	–	Adapting Configuration Management for Agile Teams: Balancing Sustainability and Speed	Mario E. Moreira		2009
99	–	Agile Software Engineering with Visual Studio: From Concept to Continuous Feedback (2nd Edition)	Sam Guckenheimer, Neno Loje		2011
100	–	Agile ALM: Lightweight Tools and Agile Strategies	Michael Hüttermann		2011

TY = position this year

LY = position last year

*) UPDATE 24-8-2012: Added to the list one week after original publication

Are you curious to know what managers can do in an Agile organization? 

Get the book!

Management 3.0

Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders

This list is based on quality (averate ratings) and quantity (number of ratings), both on Amazon.com and GoodReads.com. The age of the books also played a minor factor in the calculations. (Older books should keep acquiring new ratings, or else they drop in the list.)

Basically, I created four different rankings: (1) average Amazon rating, (2) number of Amazon ratings, (3) average GoodReads rating, (4) number of GoodReads ratings, (5) age of book in days since release. Then I calculated the average score of the books across these rankings (where age had only half the weight compared to the others), and then I turned this into the final ranking. The result is a list that reflects books with the most and the best ratings, weighed according to the time span in which they were able to earn those ratings.

Next week I will show you the new books that didn’t make it…

Wait! Don't stop reading now. I have some more interesting lists for you:

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• Top 100 Software Engineering Books, Ever
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My new book Managing for Happiness is available from June 2016.