This week, a peer in the Agile community put the following question to a number of us: "If you could recommend one Agile book to a manager what would that be?"

His question generated some thoughtful responses and ultimately a number of titles which I've collected here. I share this because I think his goal is not uncommon these days - certainly I'm facing it myself among those in the northern New England business community who are skeptical, risk-averse or just have been burned by product/software development promises that have fallen (painfully) short.

Its funny how we Agile advocates and practitioners now have to be careful of the very suspicions of a silver bullet solution that led to some of the original examination of product development methodology on which Agile perpectives are built!

Fortunately, Agile's authentic focus on practical results can often disarm these suspicions and fears if your audience is receptive. I think if there's a legitimate pitfall in the selling of Agile, its the that, the selling, not the Agile story itself.

I will take these thoughts back to the discussion in a follow-up question: If you had just one chance to get a manager to overlook their fears and doubts and take Agile's claims at face value, how would you do it?

The list:
Just One Agile Book that could entice a manager to believe in Agile and even give it a try:
Integrating Agile Development in the Real World (Programming Series)
Peter Schuh
Author's site
Amazon

Agile Software Development Ecosystems (The Agile Software Development Series)
James A Highsmith
Author's site
Amazon

Extreme Programming: Installed
Ron Jeffries, Ann Anderson, Chet Hendrickson
Author's site
Amazon

Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (The XP Series)
Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres
Amazon

Extreme Programming Pocket Guide
chromatic
O'Reilly
Amazon

Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager's Guide (The Agile Software Development Series)
Craig Larman
Amazon

Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game (2nd Edition) (The Agile Software Development Series)
Alistair Cockburn
Amazon

Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit (The Agile Software Development Series)
Mary Poppendieck, Tom Poppendieck
Author's site
Amazon

Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash (The Addison-Wesley Signature Series)
Mary Poppendieck, Tom Poppendieck
Author's site
Amazon

Agile Estimating and Planning (Robert C. Martin Series)
Mike Cohn
Author's site
Amazon

The Art of Agile Development
James Shore, Shane Warden
Author's site
Amazon

Manage It!: Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
Johanna Rothman
Author's site
Amazon