War and Peace and IT: Business Leadership, Technology, and Success in the Digital Age

Have you ever read a book and said to yourself, “I want to lock my executives in a room and make them read this”?Okay, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration :-), but Mark Schwartz’s latest work is one that all levels of IT management should digest, especially executives. My copy is filled why highlights and I have pages of notes. It is near impossible to select a few points to focus on for a review, but…- Do you want to know why it is a fundamental mistake that IT be treated like a contractor versus being an equal partner in business outcomes? Read this book.- Do you need ideas on how to align your company’s financial model with a truly agile development approach? Read this book.- Do you want to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and turn your employees into value-generating entrepreneurs? Read this book.In the end…"…business agility is what gives the practice [Agile] its name. Note that the goal of the technique is business agility, not just technical flexibility."Those of us on the IT side can do everything faster, cheaper, and with greater quality, but we are still going to come up short unless that gets translated into actual value for our company and its customers. Schwartz shows how the silos we’ve created between “business” and “IT” (and the approaches and processes built with those silos) are impeding positive outcomes. He also makes a convincing argument that forcing people to stick to a plan is the opposite of maximizing value. For instance:"You can control a DevOps initiative through continuous involvement and feedback, rather than by simply approving a plan at the beginning of an effort. Instead of checking on the project through periodic status reviews, you get to see and use completed work throughout—a much better way to gauge progress. You can continually adjust priorities and reallocate resources, as well as evaluate the quality of the work by seeing business results, rather than through a few weeks of user acceptance testing at the last minute.In short, you trade perceived control for actual control."Ultimately, by the time you complete reading this book, you’ll have the tools to “trade perceived control for actual control,” increase the value of your agility asset (something Schwartz notes doesn’t show up on a balance sheet), and turn an uncertain future into an opportunity:"Risk is the possible negative consequences of the uncertain future, while opportunity is the possible positive consequence of the uncertain future. Agility is the organizational characteristic that determines whether the uncertain future becomes on or the other–or simply the benign passage of time."Additionally:"Given an uncertain future, anything that increases your cost of change also increases your risk. Anything that decreases the former also decreases the latter. Reducing the cost of change is the definition of agility. To put it bluntly, risk is lack of agility."Now do you want your team, your department, and your company to reduce risk and become more agile?War and Peace and IT provides you with ample evidence to either recommend or lead that change…along with a lot of the “how.” And, Schwartz does so in a fun, easy-to-read way…with a ton more guidance and wisdom than I’ve been able to touch on in this short review.Now, time for me to figure out how to get the “why” and “how” before my execs, whether I can get them to read this book or not. :-)P.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, I was given a review copy of the book (pictured here as I head on a flight for vacation), but it was so good I bought a Kindle version too.

Sea habla del mundo VUCA o BANI, pero se sigue operando con las prácticas de siempre. El autor en este libro, indica como las organizaciones deben cambiar para lograr la tan ansiada y mencionada Transformación Digital, el rol que la IT debe de tener, más estratégico, más en el negocio, más ágil, más Lean

I find that the best and most successful organizations are the ones where IT is a partner to the rest of the company, rather than a "support" or "factory" function.This book articulates really well why it is important that both IT and "Business" understand that it is a partnership and not a blame game.A must read for any manager/exec in a company that has an IT department!

Mark Schwartz has both CIO and CEO experience and this book speaks to both technologists as well as business people. I am currently working for a 140+ year old company that desperately needs to take the teachings of this book to heart to maintain relevancy in the coming years. Schwartz weaves history lessons into explanations of modern DevOps, Agile, Lean, Lean Startup and XP practices. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to stay relevant in the market as well as attract new talent who expect businesses to operate the Way described by the author.

All fresh, innovative and based on a sound personal experience plus a number of reference books. In my opinion a must read for anyone who considers himself/herself an agile oriented manager. The important part is that it covers nearly all the angles - from technology down to accounting etc. Get it. You wont regret it.

Essentially a scathing, fact based, and thorough critique of operating your business without taking advantage of the new approaches that have become possible as technology has advanced. Excellently written with pertinent examples and from a broad base of experience.

What Mark Schwartz did for IT leaders in his previous book, A Seat at the Table, he now does for leaders outside IT in his new book. Schwartz systematically knocks down practices and principles about how best to view and work with IT that have gone unchallenged for years or even decades. The industry has learned much about what works and what doesn’t in recent years, but many organizations and leaders are still stuck in older ways of working that don’t produce the best results. Schwartz calls out the conventional thinking and uses philosophy, logic, and his leadership inside and outside IT to share concepts and approaches proven to work better in today’s complex world. If you’re struggling to convince leadership to think and act differently to get better results from IT or you are a leader needing to operate differently because what you’re doing isn’t working, read this book.

It's no surprise that the author (Mark Schwartz) is back with another must read book on the topic of work and value in business from an IT and business perspective. This is the logical successor to the book 'A Seat at the Sable` and really resonates with me personally.This is perfect for anyone in business who thinks that technology is the enabler and cause of pain... business and IT need to work as one and focus on outcomes and value, not just timelines, scope or budget..I wish we could all be working in the fashion explained in these books, it's a long journey for all involved but an essential one if you want to succeed in your own digital transformation journey (aka staying relevant in the 21st technology)

It was recommended by a colleague to help explain the IT trends that are demystifying IT changing the way products are delivered.

given the technical topic of the book, I found it quite entertaining.Some good insight to improve your IT management.Good one.

It is interesting that while the words in digital trends keep flying, very few have addressed the problem at its root cause as Mark has done in this book - the need to change technology team’s relationship to the enterprise. A riveting must read.

Mark once again blends humour and knowledge into some remarkable statements. The challenge for the reader is to consider his comments as both help and a warning. Prepare to open your mind to someone who may be the best technology writer of the past decade.

Fantastic book.