It's been pointed out to me that the ACPF equation on page 23 should read

Average Cost Per Function = OEtime period / Q

and not the inverse as shown in the book.

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My book is now (finally) available in Japanese. GAMBARE NIHON! You can get it here from Amazon.co.jp. Ironic that it took this long to appear in Japan. There is such a big interest in TOC and Lean in Japan. Even more ironic is that another publisher paid someone else to translate it rather than Prentice Hall paying my wife to do it.

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There is a confusing typographical error with the market segmentation tables from Chapter 16 - Agile Product Management - page 145. The ordering of the numbers was transposed in Table 16-3 which made following the Throughput Accounting product mix example rather difficult. The graphical style chosen for the printed book amplified the problem - making it difficult to see the alignment of information. These two revised tables correct the error and make the market segmentation matrix more obvious.

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I have a new affiliate deal with Pearson on-line bookstore InformIT. [Pearson is the owner of Prentice Hall PTR]. This new link offers you a fantastic 30% discount on the book as well as providing me with a small affiliate percentage over and above my regular royalty. In the best TOC fashion, it is a Win-Win. If you still don't have your copy of the book and want the best price available then follow this link to InformIT or click the link on the sidebar from any page on this site.

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Somewhat to my surprise, Prentice Hall have released another chapter as an article at Inform-IT - Chapter 2 Management Accounting for Systems.

Throughput Accounting [Corbett 1998] is a management accounting process that grew out of the manufacturing production application of the Theory of Constraints [Goldratt 1984]. Throughput Accounting can be generally applied for the management, control, and reporting of any system. It is a useful technique for management systems based on the Theory of Constraints, Lean Production [Womack 1991], Six Sigma [Tayntor 2002], or the Toyota Production System [Ohno 1988]. Throughput Accounting is appropriate for managing general systems because it focuses on Throughput, which is the desired adaptive behavior of the system.

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Chapter 4 - Dealing with Uncertainty appears in full as an article at Inform-IT this month.

Goldratt's first truly astute assertion about project management [Goldratt 1997] is that in an accurately planned project consisting of many tasks, approximately half the tasks will be slightly late, assuming the planning was accurate. This is very counterintuitive, but it is a fact. If a project is accurately planned and delivered on time, statistically approximately half the tasks should be early and half should be late. Accepting this notion is hard, but once accepted, it is possible to consider the solution.

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My publisher has told me that they are about reprint the book. This is great news. It means sales must be steady and well above my own humble expectations. I didn't expect a reprint for about 18 months but it is happening after only 4 months.

I would like to thank anyone who has purchased the book and especially those who have recommended it on their website or taken time to place a review at Amazon.com or other book sites. Thanks for your support. I have also seen a huge jump in traffic at this site since the holiday break. Around 1300 people download my weblog in HTML or RSS format each day. I'm very pleased with that after only 5 months. This can only be due to people passing on a recommendation and adding the site to their blogroll. Thanks again.

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Prentice Hall have allowed me to make Chapter 5 - Software Production Metrics available as a sample in PDF. In this chapter I introduce the only 3 metrics which really matter. They are designed to be simple, supporting of the business goals, self-generating (with a little help from tools) and predictive rather than lagging. These 4 criteria are taken from Donald Reinertsen's Managing the Design Factory. The 3 most important metrics are Inventory (number of ideas for client-valued functions) in progress, Production Rate (the rate of completion of client-valued functions) and the Lead Time (the time to create a working client-valued function) which has a direct relationship to the average (mean) cost of each function. To find out why these are the only metrics which matter, you will need to read the whole chapter.

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The two most frequently asked questions recently have been:-

• The book isn't in my local store yet. When will it be published?
• I eventually found your book in my local store but it was misfiled under "programming"?

For the answers please...

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"At last! While software engineers will design systems around the common principles of software engineering, the same level of rigor has not been paid to the management principles. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to bridge current thinking on management and process control to the management of software development. If you are accountable for not just software development but also making your business a success, then read this book."

Craig Hayman, VP Development, IBM Pervasive Computing

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A sneak preview of the book. Prentice Hall have allowed me to make the introduction to Section 1 and the whole of Chapter 14 "Operations Review" available in PDF form.

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People have asked me about the cover art for the book. The piece is by the German artist Jan Voss and is titled "Figurant CXI". It is actually 3-dimensional, so the photo does not do it justice. The work was chosen at my request as I felt that M.C. Escher was becoming passe. Voss happens to be a friend of our family on my wife's side. My sister-in-law is his dealer in Tokyo. We have an early Voss on our living room wall. Personally, I much prefer the more recent 3-D color material to the 2-D monochrome stuff he was doing in the early 90s.

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Agile Management for Software Engineering
- Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results

Prentice Hall have authorized me to circulate the book cover (front and back sides) in PDF form. Download Agile Management cover (PDF 706K).

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Agile Management for Software Engineering
- Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results

The book has now gone to the publisher for production and printing. The final Table of Contents for the 3rd draft is now available. For updates, related material, bonus chapters and news on publication, check here regularly. For discussion of the ideas in the book and news of publication, you are also invited to join my Yahoo! group, agilemanagement. Prentice Hall have set September 22nd, 2003 as the publication date.

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