Learning is not compulsory … neither is survival.
—W. Edwards DemingWe now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.
—Peter Drucker
Recommended Reading
Note: This article is part of Extended SAFe Guidance, and represents official SAFe content that cannot be accessed directly from the Big Picture.
In our training, we strongly encourage every Lean-Agile leader to rededicate themselves to lifelong learning. After all, in a sea of constant technological and business change, is there any other choice? To this end, we maintain an active list of our ‘Top 10’ (more or less) recommended books that provide a foundational understanding of the ‘principles behind the principles’ in SAFe.
We also maintain a collection of great secondary resources. These ‘staff favorites’ have significantly influenced our thinking in various areas of the framework. These lists change over time as new works become available, but, as of this writing, here are our current favorites.
Foundational Reading
- SAFe Distilled 5.0: Achieving Business Agility with the Scaled Agile Framework
- The Principles of Product Development Flow, Reinertsen
- Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World, Kotter
- Agile Software Requirements, Leffingwell
- Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework, Kersten
- Out of the Crisis, Deming
- The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations, Kim, Debois, Willis, Humble
- Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, Marquet
- The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, Ries
- Lean Product and Process Development, Ward, Sobeck II
Other Great Resources
- The Lean Machine: How Harley-Davidson Drove Top-Line Growth and Profitability with Revolutionary Lean Product Development, Oosterwal
- The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, Goldratt
- The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data, Kim
- The Art of Avoiding a Train Wreck: Practical Tips and Tricks for Launching and Operating SAFe Agile Release Trains, Campbell-Pretty, Wilson
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Heath, Heath
- Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley’s Cutting Edge, Moore
- Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow, Skelton, Pais
- Leading Change, Kotter
- Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation, Martin, Osterling
- The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, Senge
- The Design Thinking Playbook: Mindful Digital Transformation of Teams, Products, Services, Businesses and Ecosystems, Lewrick, Link, Leifer
Note: The above links are for your convenience only. We encourage you to shop around for the best value.
Last Updated: 10 Feb 2021
