Sunday, January 31, 2016

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande



How to Get Things Right
We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. 
Longer training, ever more advanced technologies—neither seems to prevent grievous errors. 
But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. 
First introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. 
Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. 
Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third.
In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. 
He explains how checklists actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. 
And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from disaster response to investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.
An intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference, The Checklist Manifesto is essential reading for anyone working to get things right.
[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4 out of 5 (19634 Ratings, 1982 Reviews)
My Rating 3 out of 5.  

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Friday, January 29, 2016

Scion of Ikshvaku - Amish



Ramachandra Series - Book 1
Ram Rajya. 
The Perfect Land. 
But perfection has a price. 
He paid that price. 
3400 BCE. INDIA 
Ayodhya is weakened by divisions. 
A terrible war has taken its toll. 
The damage runs deep. 
The demon King of Lanka, Raavan, does not impose his rule on the defeated. He, instead, imposes his trade. 
Money is sucked out of the empire. 
The Sapt Sindhu people descend into poverty, despondency and corruption.
They cry for a leader to lead them out of the morass. 
Little do they appreciate that the leader is among them. 
One whom they know. 
A tortured and ostracised prince. 
A prince they tried to break.
 A prince called Ram. 
He loves his country, even when his countrymen torment him.
He stands alone for the law. 
His band of brothers, his Sita, and he, against the darkness of chaos. 
Will Ram rise above the taint that others heap on him? 
Will his love for Sita sustain him through his struggle? 
Will he defeat the demon Lord Raavan who destroyed his childhood? 
Will he fulfil the destiny of the Vishnu? 
Begin an epic journey with Amish's latest: The Ram Chandra Series.
[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.6 out of 5 (7342 Ratings, 936 Reviews)
My Rating 3 out of 5.  

Buying Options 
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Saturday, January 23, 2016

A Strange Kind of Paradise - Sam Miller



India through Foreign Eyes
A Strange Kind of Paradise is an exploration of India's past and present, from the perspective of a foreigner who has lived in India for many years. 
Sam Miller investigates how the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, Arabs, Africans, Europeans and Americans - everyone really, except for Indians themselves - came to imagine India. 
His account of the engagement between foreigners and India spans the centuries from Alexander the Great to Slumdog Millionaire. 
It features, among many others, Thomas the Apostle, the Chinese monk Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Vasco da Gama, Babur, Clive of India, several Victorian pornographers, Mark Twain, EM Forster, Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles and Steve Jobs. 
Interspersed between these tales is the story of Sam Miller's own 25-year-long love affair with India. 
The result is a spellbinding, 2500-year-long journey through Indian history, culture and society, in the company of an author who informs, educates and entertains in equal measure, as he travels in the footsteps of foreign chroniclers, exposes some of their fabulous fantasies and overturns long held stereotypes about race, identity and migration. 
A tour de force that is at once scholarly and thought-provoking, delightfully eccentric and laugh-out-loud funny, this book is destined to become a much-loved classic.
[Book Description Source: www.amazon.in ] 

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.96 out of 5 (69 Ratings, 13 Reviews)
My Rating 4 out of 5.  

Buying Options 
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(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)

Friday, January 22, 2016

Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo



Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders

In many organizations, management is the biggest obstacle to successful Agile development. 
Unfortunately, reliable guidance on Agile management has been scarce indeed. Now, leading Agile manager Jurgen Appelo fills that gap, introducing a realistic approach to leading, managing, and growing your Agile team or organization.


Writing for current managers and developers moving into management, Appelo shares insights that are grounded in modern complex systems theory, reflecting the intense complexity of modern software development. 
 Appelo’s Management 3.0 model recognizes that today’s organizations are living, networked systems; and that management is primarily about people and relationships.

 Management 3.0 doesn’t offer mere checklists or prescriptions to follow slavishly; rather, it deepens your understanding of how organizations and Agile teams work and gives you tools to solve your own problems. 
Drawing on his extensive experience as an Agile manager, the author identifies the most important practices of Agile management and helps you improve each of them.


Coverage includes

 • Getting beyond “Management 1.0” control and “Management 2.0” fads

• Understanding how complexity affects your organization

• Keeping your people active, creative, innovative, and motivated

• Giving teams the care and authority they need to grow on their own

• Defining boundaries so teams can succeed in alignment with business goals

• Sowing the seeds for a culture of software craftsmanship

• Crafting an organizational network that promotes success

• Implementing continuous improvement that actually works


Thoroughly pragmatic–and never trendy–Jurgen Appelo’s Management 3.0 helps you bring greater agility to any software organization, team, or project.
[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.12 out of 5 (771 Ratings, 61 Reviews)
My Rating 4 out of 5.  

Buying Options 
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(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)