Over the last 14 years, I've done plenty of software development. I've worked on projects that have been run in a very structured manner and others that have been run in a more "flexible" manner, as well as open source projects.

I've always found it very interesting to see how different projects are run, both as a team member (ie a grunt) and also as a manager.

So I found it very interesting when I came across the book "Balancing Agility & Discipline: A Guide For The Perplexed" (Amazon link). I've recently been focussing on adopting some of the agile methods into my development teams, but some of the methods don't really sit well with me. This book takes a very pragmatic approach to combining the best of both worlds to fit your particular needs and gives some foundation to backup my thinking.

If you're interested in incorporating some or all of the agile methods into your project teams, but aren't too sure about how they would fit to your organisation, I'd recommend grabbing a copy. Alternatively, if your so agile that you don't know where you're meant to be pointing, then this may help you to put a rudder on your project and get some direction again.

Well worth a read.