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November 28, 2005
Review of 'The Ice Cream Maker'
The Ice Cream Maker, by Subir Chowdhury was sent to me as a gift by the nice folks at 800 CEO Read.
It's something of a split-brained book. In part, it talks about getting employees to care about what they do, and what it takes to get them to care (listen to their concerns, demonstrate a willingness to follow through on their concerns and in general, make them feel like they are both accountable and empowered to do the best job they can do).
It is also a book about quality, Six Sigma style, with lots of focus on measurement and repeatability.
In the agile software development world, the first focus of the story is much more effective than the second, in that QA and quality in software is such a different animal than production of icecream.
I did enjoy the book, and I felt that significant elements of motivation, listening and optimizing employee capabilities are consistent with my principles and the principles I ascribe to agile development.
I would give it a 3.5 out of 5.
Posted by jb at November 28, 2005 10:00 AM
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