add driving tech change writeup

Author: Matt Swanson

_posts/2012-01-25-driving-technical-change.md

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+---
+layout: writeup
+title: Driving Technical Change
+categories:
+- writeup
+---
+
+![](/static/driving-technical-change.jpeg)  
+[Driving Technical Change: Why People on Your Team Don't Act on Good Ideas, and How to Convince Them They Should][link]  
+Terrence Ryan  
+ISBN: 1934356603
+
+---
+
+**What's the point?**  
+You've got a great idea for how to improve your development team. No one 
+seems to listen. You keep trying and then get grumpy. This book tries to help
+you not fail at introducing technical change.
+
+**How was it?**  
+Quick read, but packed with good advice and realistic examples - which is
+exactly the way I like my technical books. While it claims to be a "patterns"
+book, I found it to be slightly different from others in the genre (especially
+compared to [another patterns book on the same topic I'm also reading][fc])
+but in a good way.
+
+The book begins by introducing seven types of "skeptics", ranging from the
+Uninformed and the Cynic to the Burned and the Timecrunched. It is a really 
+effective way to help you internalize the advice given in the rest of the 
+book, since most people have actually run across these archetypes in their
+own jobs.
+
+Then, you jump straight into Techniques that you can use to convert skeptics.
+Each section tells which type of skeptic a given technique will best 
+"counter" and has examples that are actually plausible - the fictional 
+characters are trying to introduce changes like automating deployment or
+switching to an ORM.
+
+Lastly, the book lays out some general Strategies to improve the potency of 
+the techniques. This section has some great content and very memorable calls-
+to-action like Ignore the Irrational and Target the Willing.
+
+**Who should read it?**  
+I personally got a lot out of the book, as I have been interested in this 
+topic for the past few months. The goal of the book is to help you convince 
+co-works to adopt new ideas without resorting to the BS of office politics and
+top-down mandates - so if that sounds appealing to you, give this book a shot.
+
+[link]: http://pragprog.com/book/trevan/driving-technical-change
+[fc]: http://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Change-Patterns-Introducing-Ideas/dp/0201741571