A week ago I received the following note from Tom Looy who writes the delightful Conversations with Andrew blog and works for tacitknowledge.com in San Francisco:
Good morning Clarke. I just finished reading the second draft of Rolling Rocks Uphill and I have to tell you that I am thrilled with it. I have found where the first draft aligns with where the second draft ends so I can continue the reading but I just had to get back to you to let you know how good your work is. As a business novel it is very nicely written. Just as good as Goldratt's novels. Excellent dialog that builds the case for the evaporating clouds and excellent dialogue that shows how agile conclusions were drawn using evaporating clouds. Maybe it's because I have been doing software for so long and that I have been in so many situations like Steve's that I found your storyline very engaging. I also have my Craig/Jonah (Matt G... ) and I am aspiring to become more Jonah like so I find your book to be coaching tool for me in becoming an Agile mentor.
If I could, I'd like to make a couple suggests. I think the second draft comes to a nice conclusion with the successful launch of the VSP product with NSSP so maybe you could wrap that up as your first novel. As I started to read the original draft at the point where the second draft ended and found that you are introducing Prerequisite Trees, I felt like I wasn't able to take on another tool in Goldratt's Thinking Process. Information overload (and I already quite familiar with TOC and Agile.) Maybe introduce Prerequisite Trees in a follow-up novel. My second suggestion would be to button up the second draft by cleaning up some of the typos. I want to send the second draft to dozens of my colleagues and former customers and I would love to send them a 'finished' product. I'd be glad to help in proofing it if you would like.
Thanks again for taking the time to write your book - I am really excited about it!
As it happens I had already decided to split the book in two ... but I just hadn't gotten around to it. I was dithering until I would up my current gig. Thanks Tom - you've inspired me to pull my finger out.
So, here's the official announcement.
First there will be Rolling Rocks Downhill where Steve learns that the physics of software development dictate that it is a hell of a lot easier, more efficient, and more predictable to develop software iteratively and incrementally, learning and adapting as you go, than it is to develop software by failing to get all of the requirements and design right up front, build it, then rework it until it is (only just) good enough to ship. Why push a big rock uphill if, instead, you can keep people happier by rolling lots of little rocks downhill? Why work against gravity, rather than with it?
I am planning to take the next 2-3 months off to round out the novel with the help of an American copy editor then I will self publish.
Second there will be the sequel Rocks into Gold where Steve and his colleagues discover how to sell his new discovery (by making shitloads of money for his customers), how to use it to build and rebuild trust between suppliers and customers, and how to use it in a product environment. I also introduce the world to the NEOREJIZUM - the Japanese term for when large firms teach their software suppliers to thrill their customers by software of unprecedented quality, on time.
I'm already about halfway through writing this novel, but I'll delay working on it until I finish or get sick of the first one :)
