Most agile books give you theory. They explain Scrum ceremonies, Kanban principles, and sprint planning in clean diagrams that look nothing like your actual workplace. Henrik Kniberg did something different. He wrote about a real project with real problems, and showed how a team of 60 people made Lean and Kanban work at the Swedish Police.
I read this as an engineer who’d been through several “agile transformations” that were mostly renaming meetings. Lean from the Trenches felt honest in a way that most methodology books don’t.
Best for: Engineers, engineering managers, project managers, and anyone implementing Kanban or Lean in a real organization. Not a beginner’s guide to agile. You should understand the basics of Scrum and Kanban before picking this up.
Who Is Henrik Kniberg?
Kniberg is an agile and Lean coach who became well known for his work at Spotify. His video “Spotify Engineering Culture” spread across the tech industry and influenced how dozens of companies structured their engineering teams. Squads, tribes, chapters, guilds. If your company tried any version of that model, it traces back to Kniberg.
He’s a keynote speaker, consultant, and the author of “Scrum and XP from the Trenches,” another practical guide that follows the same case-study approach. His strength is translating complex organizational concepts into plain language with clear visuals. He draws a lot of diagrams, and they actually help.
What You’ll Learn
The book follows a real project: a 60-person software development effort at the Swedish Police authority. Kniberg documents how the team used Kanban boards, continuous improvement, and Lean principles to manage a large-scale project.
Key topics covered:
- How to set up and manage a Kanban board for a large team
- Work-in-progress limits and why they matter
- How to handle dependencies between multiple teams
- Continuous improvement in practice (not just theory)
- The “people mindset” required for agile to actually work
- How the process evolved and adapted over time
The most valuable part isn’t the technical setup. It’s how the team adapted their process when things didn’t work. Real agile is messy. Kniberg doesn’t hide that.
The Good and the Bad
What works:
The case study format is the book’s biggest strength. You’re following a real project from start to finish. The decisions, the mistakes, the adjustments. Kniberg writes clearly and keeps the technical jargon manageable. You get the feeling of being part of the team, which makes the lessons stick.
The emphasis on people over process is refreshing. Kniberg makes the point that no framework works without the right mindset, from upper management down to individual developers. Without trust and willingness to change, the Kanban board is just a wall with sticky notes.
It’s short. You can finish it in a few hours. That’s intentional. Kniberg doesn’t pad it.
What doesn’t:
If you’re looking for a comprehensive guide to Kanban, this isn’t it. The book assumes you already know the basics. Newcomers to agile will feel lost in places.
The second part of the book (supplementary material) is less engaging than the case study. It’s useful reference material, but it reads like appendices rather than a continuation of the story.
The specific context (Swedish public sector, large team) means some lessons won’t translate directly to a small startup or a solo developer. You’ll need to adapt, which is appropriate given the book’s message, but worth knowing going in.
Who Should Read It
Read it if: You’re implementing Kanban or Lean in an organization and want to see how it plays out in reality. Engineering managers, Scrum masters, and project leads will get the most out of it. It’s also useful for developers who want to understand why their team is organized a certain way.
Skip it if: You need a beginner’s introduction to agile. Start with Kniberg’s “Scrum and XP from the Trenches” or the official Scrum Guide instead.
Similar Books
Scrum and XP from the Trenches by Henrik Kniberg. Same author, same practical approach, focused on Scrum and Extreme Programming. If you like his style, read this one next.
The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford. A novel about IT and DevOps. Tells a fictional story that teaches the same kind of process improvement lessons. More accessible for non-technical readers.
Kanban by David J. Anderson. The comprehensive reference on the Kanban method. Heavier reading than Kniberg’s book, but more thorough on the theory and principles.
Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. If Kniberg’s book makes you think about team structure, this is the natural follow-up. It covers how to organize engineering teams for fast flow.
What’s Next
If you’re interested in how successful people approach reading and learning, check our Elon Musk’s favorite books and Seth Godin’s favorite books lists.
For audiobook versions of tech and business books, our Audible Originals guide covers the best options on the platform.
About These Recommendations
I’m George. I read to my kids for 10+ years before they started reading on their own. My wife’s a therapist who helped pick books that actually matter for development. Everything on this site got tested on our family first.
FAQs
It’s a case study of a real 60-person software project at the Swedish Police authority. Henrik Kniberg documents how the team used Kanban, Lean principles, and continuous improvement to manage a large-scale project, including what worked and what didn’t.
Not as a first agile book. It assumes familiarity with Scrum and Kanban basics. If you’re new to agile, start with Kniberg’s “Scrum and XP from the Trenches” or the Scrum Guide, then come back to this one.
An agile and Lean coach best known for defining Spotify’s engineering culture (squads, tribes, chapters, guilds). He’s a keynote speaker, consultant, and author of multiple practical agile books. His strength is explaining complex organizational concepts with clear visuals.
A few hours. The book is intentionally short and focused. The main case study is the first part. The second part contains supplementary reference material that you can skim or return to later.
Primarily Kanban, but the project described uses elements of both. Kniberg shows how the team blended Lean thinking, Kanban boards, and agile principles rather than following a single framework rigidly. The focus is on practical application over methodology.
Kniberg’s own “Scrum and XP from the Trenches” uses the same case-study format. The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim takes a novel approach to teaching DevOps and process improvement. Kanban by David J. Anderson is the comprehensive reference on the Kanban method.