See buying choices for this item to see if it's one of the millions that are eligible for Amazon Prime.

Ready to Buy?
the_book_de...
Price: £30.49
In stock

aphrohead_b...
Price: £31.47
In stock

22 used & new from £2.86

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Software for Your Head
 
See larger image
 

Software for Your Head (Paperback)

by Jim McCarthy (Author), Michele McCarthy (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Available from these sellers.


14 new from £3.67 8 used from £2.86

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

by Jeffrey Liker
5.0 out of 5 stars (7)  £10.19
Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation

Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation

by James P. Womack
4.7 out of 5 stars (11)  £11.49
Good to Great

Good to Great

by Jim Collins
4.6 out of 5 stars (44)  £15.39
Agile Estimating and Planning (Robert C. Martin)

Agile Estimating and Planning (Robert C. Martin)

by Mike Cohn
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  £24.64
Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent, Hardback: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent

Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent, Hardback: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent

by Joel Spolsky
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £12.82
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Addison Wesley (9 Jan 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0201604566
  • ISBN-13: 978-0201604566
  • Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 18.5 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 721,265 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
Software Development
   www.TometaSoftware.com    Start your Software Project today. Want Great Code? Get Quote. 
Software?
   www.OpenIT.com    Tracking use of software licenses is easy. Used by Fortune 500 cos. 
Reduce Costs with SAM
   www.scalable.com/products.aspx    Scalable can get you compliant and reduce your software costs 
  
 

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Aimed at forward-thinking software developers and IT managers, Software For Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining SharedVision provides an innovative set of procedures and re-usable "patterns" for improving the way teams work together.

This book's amalgam of the lingo of software patterns, management theory (and even New Age and popular psychology) helps make this text one of the most challenging you'll ever read about team building. Based on the authors' considerable experience with Microsoft and their simulated developer "boot camps" run with hundreds of teams, this book eschews providing practical evidence drawn from real projects. Instead, it formulates a unique vocabulary of terms, protocols and patterns that arguably should allow teams to carry out decisions, and build better team focus.

Long on theory but consciously short on any practical examples, this title offers an uncompromising vision for getting teams to work together. Though it's doubtful that your average IT department will be able to commit to such a different set of terms for the everyday workplace, Software For Your Head provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of highly committed and collaborative teams written by two legendary ex-Microsoftees. --Richard Dragan

Product Description

Most people have experienced--at least once in their lives--the incomparable thrill of being part of a great team effort. They can remember the unity of purpose they experienced, the powerful passion that inspired them, and the incredible results they achieved. People who have been on a great team can attest that the difference between being on a team with a shared vision and being on a team without one is the difference between joy and misery.

In 1996, Jim and Michele McCarthy, after successful careers leading software development teams at Microsoft and elsewhere, set out to discover a set of repeatable group behaviors that would always lead to the formation of a state of shared vision for any team. They hoped for a practical, communicable, and reliable process that could be used to create the best possible teams every time it was applied. They established a hands-on laboratory for the study and teaching of high-performance teamwork. In a controlled simulation environment, their principle research and teaching effort--the McCarthy Software Development BootCamp--challenged dozens of real-world, high-tech teams to produce and deliver a product. Teams were given a product development assignment, and instructed to form a team, envision the product, agree on how to make it, then design, build, and ship it on time. By repeating these simulations time after time, with the new teams building on the learning from previous teams, core practices emerged that were repeatedly successful. These were encoded as patterns and protocols.

Software for Your Head is the first publication of the most significant results of the authors' unprecedented five-year investigation into the dynamics of contemporary teams. The information in this book will provide a means for any team to create for itself a compelling state of shared vision.



0201604566B09042001

See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
teamwork
software development
effectiveness

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Important ideas - perhaps an important book, 13 Jul 2006
By C. C. Shelley (Witney, Oxfordshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The authors have set out to identify those things that make teams take off and really perform, and the things that stop them performing. This has been achieved at the McCarthys' `boot camp' by creating teams, making them perform, and analysing their performance. The results are set of patterns that can be learned and used, and corresponding antipatterns to be recognized and avoided or eliminated. The results presented in this book are impressive, but unsettling. The patterns may well be uncomfortable or embarrassing to introduce and adopt, requiring team members to act with more integrity and candour than is usual, and many of the antipatterns describe behaviour that most team members will recognize in themselves. The McCarthys don't pull their punches either. No concessions are made to appeals the `real world': to build high performing teams delivering excellent intellectual property team members must understand and value themselves, visibly and openly commit to themselves, the team and the team's vision, and recognize and eliminate the second rate, faux pragmatism and the bogus. The prize is the pleasure and satisfaction many will know from working on high performance teams, and the `can do' belief and ability of the team to do almost anything. This book is not an easy read, it will make you aware of your own, and your team's limitations, is perhaps longer that it needs to be and the writing can be verbose, and occasionally pompous, but it is filled with wisdom and insights. And it does present very clear models of behaviour rather than the usual rather vague advice and mumbo jumbo. This may be an important book, the ideas certainly are. CCS July 2006
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]

   


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback


Fun for Everyone

Christmas Gifts
Achieve over 15,000 RPM with our great range of Powerballs.

Shop the Powerball store

 

More From Jim McCarthy

Dynamics of Software...

Dynamics of Software Development

In 1995, Jim McCarthy captured the attention of the software... Read more
£30.36

 

Up to 53% off Braun Series Shavers

Braun Series 3 390cc Clean & Renew System Rechargeable Foil Electric Shaver
Get in touch with your smooth side with Braun Series shavers, now with Gillette blade technology.

Discover Braun Series at Amazon.co.uk

 

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

Learn more about Gift Certificates

 
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates