Jurgen Appelo is a writer, speaker, trainer, developer, entrepreneur, manager, blogger, reader, dreamer, leader, and freethinker. And he’s Dutch, which explains his talent for being weird.

After studying software engineering at the Delft University of Technology, and earning his Master’s degree in 1994, Jurgen busied himself either starting up or leading a variety of Dutch businesses, always in the position of team leader, manager, or executive.

Jurgen’s most recent occupation was CIO at ISM eCompany, one of the largest e-business solution providers in The Netherlands. As a manager, Jurgen has experience in leading software developers, development managers, project managers, quality managers, service managers, and kangaroos, some of which he hired accidentally.

He is primarily interested in software development and complexity theory, from a manager’s perspective. As a writer, he has published papers and articles in many magazines, and he maintains a blog at www.noop.nl. As a speaker, he is regularly invited to talk at seminars and conferences.

Last but not least, Jurgen is a trainer, with workshops based on the Management 3.0 model. His materials address the topics of energizing people, empowering teams, aligning constraints, developing competence, growing structure, and improving everything.

However, sometimes he puts all writing, speaking, and training aside to do some programming himself, or to spend time on his ever-growing collection of science fiction and fantasy literature, which he stacks in a self-designed book case that is four meters high.

Jurgen lives in Rotterdam (The Netherlands)–and sometimes in Brussels (Belgium)–with his partner Raoul. He has two kids and an imaginary hamster called George.

• 1  Why Things Are Not That Simple   

• 2  Agile Software Development    

• 3  Complex Systems Theory   

• 4  The Information-Innovation System   

• 5  How to Energize People   

• 6  The Basics of Self-Organization   
• 7  How to Empower Teams   
• 8  Leading and Ruling on Purpose    

• 9  How to Align Constraints    

• 10  The Craft of Rulemaking   

• 11  How to Develop Competence   

• 12  Communication on Structure    

• 13  How to Grow Structure    

• 14  The Landscape of Change   

• 15  How to Improve Everything   

• 16  All Is Wrong, but Some Is Useful   

• Index 

Pragmatic Insights for Successfully Managing Your Unique Agile Team or Organization

In many organizations, management is the biggest obstacle to successful Agile development. Unfortunately, reliable guidance on Agile management has been scarce indeed. Now, leading Agile manager Jurgen Appelo fills that gap, introducing a realistic approach to leading, managing, and growing your Agile team or organization.

Writing for current managers and developers moving into management, Appelo shares insights that are grounded in modern complex systems theory, reflecting the intense complexity of modern software development. Appelo's Management 3.0 model recognizes that today's organizations are living, networked systems; that you can't simply let them run themselves; and that management is primarily about people and relationships.

Management 3.0 doesn't offer mere checklists or prescriptions to follow slavishly: rather it deepens your understanding of how organizations and Agile teams work, and gives you tools to solve your own problems. Drawing on his extensive experience as an Agile manager and trainer, Appelo identifies the most valuable elements of Agile management, and helps you improve each of them. Coverage includes

• Getting beyond "Management 1.0" command hierarchies, and "Management 2.0" fads
• Understanding how complexity and non-linearity affect your organization-and why the best-laid plans so often fail
• Giving teams the care and feeding they need to grow on their own
• Defining boundaries and constraints, so teams can succeed in alignment with company goals
• Anticipating issues teams won't or can't resolve by themselves
• Sowing the seeds for a culture of software craftsmanship
• Keeping your people active, creative, motivated, and energized
• Helping teams develop crucial missing skills and disciplines
• Crafting organizational networks and communication flows that promote success
• Making change desirable-and making stagnation painful
• Implementing continuous improvement that actually works

Thoroughly pragmatic-and never trendy-Jurgen Appelo's Management 3.0 will help you bring greater agility to any software organization, team, or project.