Impact Mapping
Making a big impact with software products and projects - Gojko Adzic
Before I read this book, I was on Impact Mapping workshop by Krzysztof Jelski on Agile By Example. I knew the concept. I practiced it in my company in one internal project. I am going to use it in next project with client.
But now. About the book. The book is very good. The knowledge in this book is very concise. Which was good for me, but may be problematic for person who does not know the topic, because important parts may be missed. Because the book has a lot of condensed knowledge, I’m going to read it again.
I found things not directly related to impact mapping. For example chapter about iterative and incremental software building process. I liked chapters, which were abstracts of other peoples thoughts, for example Tom Gilb about metrics. It is an advantage.
I like the idea that the concept of impact maps has been described without going into unnecessary detail. This book is some kind of guideline, blueprint. And this is good.
And the most important chapter for me was “Typical mapping mistakes”. It allowed me to find a place, where I do something bad (I was unaware of it).
Apart from book. I asked myself, why we do impact maps? One of the main reasons is to create good channel of communication. To create a big picture view for technical and business people. Second reason is to decide, what should be built to achieve our goal, to reduce waste and over-engineered solutions.
I strongly recommend this book and to try this technique.
