[[Bookshelf]]  # A Seat at the Table Random thoughts: - Generally a passable agile primer for Leadership without explicitly being an agile primer for Leadership. A number of interesting ways of framing The Problem in business terms, and fairly comprehensive. - The overall frame is breaking the command/control/governance mindset for a fundamentally more iterative mindset that focuses on measurable business outcomes. - I really appreciate his views on products, capabilities, and shadow IT. - His chapter on EA was irritating but thoughtful: it started out with ragging on EAs and then moved into an interesting perspective on thinking about the company's IT asset holistically. - Like most of the IT Revolution cult, I find this eternal harping on the primacy of the Software Developer Master Race exhausting. His assertion that building things is cheaper than buying them is compelling, but laughable in the absence of any explicit mention of commodity capabilities. (I appreciated the nod towards accounting systems, but it's not enough to pull a "code all the things!" nerd back from the ledge.) ###### My Key Takeaways: - Manage against outcomes, not projects or milestones. - Question governance, and make it as lean and empowering as possible. - Empower and enable Shadow IT while minimizing risks and increasing transparency. - Unless you're selling them, product mindsets are counter-productive. Think capabilities. - The entirety of the IT estate is an asset with an as-is and to-be state. - Transformation/modernization projects mean you failed. Don't do it again. ![[Schwartz-A Seat at the Table]]