README — Agile IT management: from startup to enterprise

Note, if you came to this via the Github repository (https://github.com/dm-academy/aitm), you might want to look at the content which is now being rendered to Github Pages. Same stuff, but more navigable and the whole book will be there. If you’re already on Github Pages (http://dm-academy.github.io/aitm/) never mind.

Welcome to Agile IT Management, the first general, survey-level, collegiate text on IT management written from an Agile and Lean IT perspective.

Views on the book

There are three main views on the book:

• The Student Edition

• The Instructor’s Edition, with commentary, background, and additional resources intended for instructors using the book in their class

• The Collaborative Draft, including the content of both editions, work in process, and collaborative discussion

All are generated from the same source files. Include macros are used to include the additional instructor commentary.

Participating

I need reviewers and content contributors. I especially appreciate well-informed sidebars on specific topics and will give full in-text authorial credit for such. Or, you can help with the body of the text. I also want to cultivate an ecosystem of labs, but that is a different story.

My desire is that interested parties contribute to this project via standard Github techniques. I realize this places a barrier for some otherwise qualified contributors. However, I believe that source control is a singularly important practice; it is the constraint which enables much of the benefits of Agile.

Learning Github is a good use of your time, if you seek to teach the next generation of IT practitioners. They are heading out into a world of "infrastruture as code" and pervasive use of source control. Github portfolios are increasingly selection criteria in the hiring process for IT professionals.

(Of course, if you have a nice standalone sidebar, or a few random edits, send them on to me however and I can work them in.)

In terms of an Agile medium, the format of the book on Github will allow for better "random access" reviewing. This I think will be an improvement over the standard "read a big batch of my work please." I’ll point to specific sections as they are completed, and as discussions progress on Twitter & other channels, an approach I think is more agile.

I will say more about the labs elsewhere, but I have found that developing good labs is extraordinarily labor-intensive. I intend that each chapter have a solid lab (or multiple alternatives) and would greatly value any contributions that align with the book’s progression.

The road ahead

I have not decided on a publishing channel. I am experimenting with LeanPub, but the final decision is pending. The work would always be free here, but I may put additional formatting work in and sell the resulting value-added product. I am considering setting up a nonprofit of some sort to further the work. And I am still considering the licensing options. Interested in any ideas along these lines.

My stance on these issues depends directly on other people making substantial contributions. If that does not happen, I will consider other, more proprietary models, although I remain concerned for educational access and am not inclined to publish this solely as a $150.00 glossy textbook.

If you have comments or questions, please log a Github issue on this repository. Or drop me a line at char AT dm-academy DOT com.

Progress notes

7/23/2015 Work in progress: I am moving most of this README to the preface, but there will remain a placeholder w/pointers here.

Status as of 7/16/2015: I have ~60,000 words in Scrivener that I am starting to transfer to Github. This is not a simple conversion, the material needs further rewriting as I do this. But this project is by no means starting from scratch. Stop back in a few weeks and you’ll see actual content.

Updated status as of 8/6/2015: Have a complete file system and placeholder files, first 2 chapters are reasonable first drafts, working on Chapter 2.

Updated status as of 2/10/2016: I have completed through Chapter 8. Have cleared schedule and intend to finish a clean draft in the next few months.

Updated status as of 9/6/2016: Have completed first draft through Chapter 11. One more to go! Am aware of significant holes in Chapter 4 especially. Have a good idea what needs to go in there.

Updated status as of 10/25/2016: Have completed a first draft. Need to:

• Add more material/rewrite to (in rough priority order):

  • 5

  • 6

  • 3

  • 7

  • 1

  • 2

Refactor chapters 8 and 9 to:

• Investment management (basic funding, portfolio, IT finance, resource)

• Execution management (worried this will be 2 big - 2 sections from chapter 2, most of existing 9 - needs real thought)

• Make final decisions on toolchain & publishing

currently, I am leaning towards Asciidoc-generated PDFs sold through LeanPub ASAP, eventually Amazon.

eventual goal: continuous delivery of a CHTML (what’s the MS thing) app? what is the simplest easily navigable epub format? x

Need a/b testing w/LaTeX.

End of README, beginning of actual book build.