Kanban Book Recommendations

Build a solid foundation of knowledge in your study of Kanban. Reading a kanban book gives you a solid introduction to this agile approach. Study these books to get started on your path to becoming a Kanban expert.

[FULL DISCLOSURE] Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. That means if you click on them and make a purchase I will be paid an affiliate commission. That being said, I only recommend products that I use myself and feel will be helpful to you, my reader.

Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business

David Anderson manages software development hands on and writes prolifically on the topics of Agile Software management.

In this book, Kanban, he introduces the concepts and approaches he implemented with real world teams to achieve acceptance and efficiency. For instance, through case studies and analysis he guides readers to their own kanban implementations, tailored to suit their specific needs.

Kanban Book and the Real World

What I particularly like in this book is the use of case studies and real world experience. He doesn't sugar coat his experience. He explains the challenges he faced, the false starts he had in overcoming them and then the break through approach that eventually led to success.

Many teams and managers will see themselves and their business cultures represented in Kanban. Better yet, they will also see effective approaches to overcoming their own challenges.

Kanban Practical Advice

Anderson builds on his case studies and provides practical advice on how to implement kanban. He leaves room for interpretation as each team faces unique circumstances. However, he does lay down a solid framework to build on.

Agile teams are able to build their own practices and procedures on this framework to fit their cultures.

Recommendation

If I was looking for a solid introduction to kanban this is the first book I would read. It has a good mix of experience and theory. Thus, any agile team will gain knowledge from it and perform better for implementing it.

More on Kanban

In my What is Kanban? The Ultimate Guide article I explore my own experiences with managing agile projects and the tools I used.