Combat Agile: Applying Military Concepts to Create Top-Performing Agile Teams

Combat Agile is an application of military doctrine to the practice of Agile and Lean software development. Striking similarities exist between the U.S. Marine Corp methods for waging war and the Agile concepts of a self-organizing, adaptable team. In this book, author Steve Johnson examines these parallels and adds his own observations from years of experience in the software development arena. This is not a beginner's book of Agile -- this is advanced material for the practiced Agilist. Practicing Agilists will find some contrary opinions in this book -- for example that priorities are set by a team discussion. After many trials, the author believes the most effective (and fastest time to market) prioritization is not a democratic exercise. Instead, it is faithful reproduction of the "commander's intent" -- a military term focused on the end goal. You may like these ideas or hate them, but you're sure to come away with material you can use with your current and future Agile teams.

Steve Johnson was never in the military (although he served his country for three years in Kenya as a member of the Peace Corps). He has worked in the computer field since starting as an intern for Control Data Corporation in the late 1970’s. His career has spanned a wide variety of software development positions for companies large and small, including 15 years at Microsoft. He is an alumnus of Digital Equipment Corporation, Laserdyne, Applied Microsystems, and Authorize.Net. In 1995 he began questioning the then-current waterfall model of software development, and in 2001 discovered the Agile Manifesto. From that time forth, he has ceaselessly evangelized the Agile framework and more recently extended that preaching and cajoling to include the Lean software development concepts. In 2006 he started Agilytics LLC, an independent Agile consulting company.