Gift of Time Description

THE GIFT OF TIME

edited by Fiona Charles

Successful consultants and managers present their perspectives on lessons learned from Gerald M. Weinberg. Produced as a celebration of Jerry Weinberg’s still-flourishing career, The Gift of Time is at once a tribute to a remarkable and influential consultant, teacher and author, an introduction to his work, and a collection of lively and interesting essays describing practical strategies and techniques that the contributors have applied and extended in their own work.

Readers, students, clients, colleagues, and friends of Jerry Weinberg, the authors of The Gift of Time are also notable authors, columnists, bloggers, and teachers in their own right. Here, Fiona Charles, Robert L. Glass, James Bach, Michael Bolton, Jean McLendon, Sue Petersen, Esther Derby, Willem van den Ende, Judah Mogilensky, Naomi Karten, James Bullock, Tim Lister, Johanna Rothman, Jonathan Kohl, Dani Weinberg, and Bent Adsersen write about a range of topics, including:

• the role of systems thinking as a foundational skill in software testing

• understanding the relationships inherent in software quality and other complex problems

• building personal tools for dealing with the struggles of everyday life and work

• improving working relationships, and work itself, by giving congruent feedback

• applying models to solve problems in group dynamics

• observing behavior as an indicator of progress in process improvement

• developing critical organizational skills through experiential learning

• solving problems by going beyond simple cause-and-effect explanations to the underlying system dynamics

• illuminating current dilemmas in software development with lessons from the past

The resulting volume is a compendium of valuable expert advice for dealing with core issues on the human side of software development.

Reviews

Here's an excerpt from Isabel Evans' (Worcester, UK) review on amazon.co.uk

This charming, intriguing and stimulating book is a set of essays celebrating the life and work of that great contributor to the world of information technology, Gerald M. Weinberg. I enjoyed it thoroughly...

The authors show how they have been influenced to a passionate involvement in learning from and using Jerry's ideas, yet they also talk of his personal modesty. We see by examples in the essays how people interact and learn. The importance of acknowledging and accepting ambiguity while understanding that we don't always have an answer, is cited as a lesson learned in several essays. We find out what happened when a therapist meets an IT community, we find out how it feels to take part in workshops with Jerry and what it is like to work with him leading workshops, we learn ways to stop being blocked in our writing. The essayists share philosophies, strong views about the world, ideas, hints and tips, and ways to solve problems.

You need not agree with everything the authors say about their subjects or about your subject, but you will be challenged to think. You will be intrigued, stimulated and most importantly inspired to read, or to re-read, Weinberg's work.

Enjoy this book and then go back to Weinberg's works - I did!

And an excerpt from Janet Gregory's review on amazon.com

... I thought I would have a nice easy read about tributes to Jerry Weinberg. Instead, I found myself jotting down words and phrases as I was reading each of the essays. As a life long learner and a dabbler in the areas of systems thinking and organizational behaviour, I found so many tidbits of information and from so many perspectives, that my thoughts started running rampant. I wanted to go start researching and reading more.

And it wasn't only about systems thinking. For example, the essay by James Bach got me thinking again about basic testing premises. The one by Naomi Karten about experiential workshops made me think about my own tutorials and workshops and how I could improve the exercises I use. Congruent feedback by Ester Derby gave me a new way of thinking about giving feedback and understanding the importance of context... yet again. The list goes on.

I am sure everyone who reads it will pick up new ideas to research or will revisit some that need renewing. So much of what Jerry Weinberg has given the world is summed up so nicely in this small book of essays.