Rating: ⭐⭐️⭐⭐-(4/5)
ReG Inc is a software institution that offers miscellaneous software products. The SuS suite, the company’s propelling leverage for many years, seems to no longer draw in more customers, and old customers are requesting fresh features. It is up to the entire agile team encompassing Howard, Britta, and Ray, to set up a transformation strategy for a new product in time for the trade fair. Read Follow…..the path of Ray, Howard, and Britta, by René Schröder, to find out the strategies they employ and see if they make it in time for the trade fair.
At the onset of reading, you might think this is a children's story because of the graphics and tag: panda story. However, such thought or expectation is very far from the content of this book. Each episode of this book exposes the tactics Howard, Ray, Britta, and Silke follow, from using refinement and user stories to understand customer needs to retrieving a retrospect into sports retrospective and DoR (Definition of Ready). As you read, it is important to pen down the valued points because there is so much to take.
Of a truth, the topic is quite technical, but the author carefully elaborated on product ownership using storytelling. Before now, I had never heard of scrum masters or known what agile transformation entails, but this book opened my mind to it all. The author has a good grip on the topic at hand. He thoroughly explains each concept and utilizes the dialogue style to buttress his points. However, I am confident that it is not a field I would want to explore in the future because it was not appealing to me.
Likewise, I have to applaud René for including the definition of terms. Its location was not the best, and I believe that it should have come earlier into the book. Doing so would enable readers to familiarize themselves with the terminologies before getting into the story. Despite the use of storytelling and dialogue style, the book could not thrillingly engage readers. Follow…..the path of Ray, Howard, and Britta, is certainly not a book to read for leisure. It is an educational read and would not appeal to everyone but a set of people.
I would recommend this book to tech enthusiasts. People interested in product ownership, agile management, tech start-ups, scale-ups, and managerial effectiveness, would find this book helpful because it would provide them with tips on improving quality, speed, and employee morale. Finally, I am rating this book 4 out of 5 stars.
