Many leaders of software and technology companies today look at their organizations as a collection of departments bound together by a set of corporate, department and individual goals believing that, along with the organizational structure and cost accounting methodology, they are leading a focused, high-throughput organization. While we expect software, hardware, network and performance engineers to look at system level architecture and solutions, software and technology company leaders often behave as component thinkers and fail to recognize the need to balance system load, that which is on the company as whole, in order to maximize throughput, and as a by-product, revenue. While many technologists may seek to practice iterative, predictable, repeatable and disciplined system level behaviors, these same leaders do not realize or understand how their component level viewpoints and decisions actually degrade organizational performance.

This book discusses the immediately tangible operational value of using General Systems Thinking, Agile Principles and the Theory of Constraints as a synthesized platform from which to run a well-honed, profitable software and technology company. What we all need to know to run a company is not contained in one graduate degree, one book or built upon the successes of yesterday. Rather, what we really need to know in order to run a profitable, healthy and flourishing software and technology company is contained in our ability to synthesize multiple bodies of knowledge into foundational set of operational principles and behaviors that not only keep leaders employed, but keep companies profitable.

1. Purpose and Construct of This Book
2. Arriving at a Common Understanding
   2. The Characteristics of People
   5. The Role of Transparency in Leadership
   8. The Definition of a System
   12. What is General Systems Thinking?
   17. Garden System Example
   20. System Scaffolding Example
   25. Extrapolating Patterns and Principles from Unlike Systems
   39. What is the Theory of Constraints?
   50. What is Agile?
   55. User Stories
   60. User Story Sizing and Estimation
   65. Test Driven Development
   72. Extreme Programming
   75. Scrum
   78. Continuous Integration, Test, Inspection and Deployment
3. An Agile Implementation Story
   2. Where the company was at the beginning
   5. Where the company wanted to go in three years
   8. How the company was transitioned from A to B
   11. What went well
   14. What did not work
   17. What Should Have Been Done Differently
4. An Operational Model for Software Companies
   2. See the Company as a System
   5. Organizational Structure and Focused Flow
   20. Establish the Skeletal System
   23. Vision and Mission Statements
   28. System-Level Objective Setting
   33. Traceability in the Delivery Chain
   42. Release Planning
   51. Establish the Heartbeat
   54. Behavioral Patterns
   59. Reporting Patterns
   68. Balance the Flow of the Circulatory System
   87. Perform Regular Check-ups
   90. Daily-Standups
   95. Pairing and Pair Switching
   104. Continuous Evolution Behaviors
   109. Demonstration
   112. Pro-actively Maintain and Improve System Health
   115. Iteration-level Lessons Learned Meetings
   120. Feedback and Rework Loops
   127. Training and Mentoring
5. Final Notes
6. Recommended Reading List