Book Notes #35: The Art of Agile Development - James Shore and Shane Warden

Book Notes: The Art of Agile Development - James Shore and Shane Warden
The Art of Agile Development contains practical guidance for anyone considering or applying agile development for building valuable software. 

Summary

Title: The Art of Agile Development
Author: James Shore and Shane Warden
Themes: Leadership, Management, Business, Agile, Software
Year: 2008
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
ISBN: 0596527675, 9780596527679
Pages: 409

There are many books that explain agile development and why it helps software projects succeed. 

There are, however, very few that combine information for developers, managers, testers, and customers into one easy-to-use package.

"The Art of Agile Development" is a book written by James Shore and Shane Warden that provides a comprehensive overview of Agile software development methodologies, including Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, and Crystal.

Book Notes: The Art of Agile Development - James Shore and Shane Warden

This book provides no-nonsense advice on agile planning, development, delivery, and management taken from the authors' many years of experience with Extreme Programming (XP). 

This book provides a holistic view of the agile development process, including hands-on technical practices for developers and testers as well as comprehensive guidance for non-technical readers.

The Art of Agile Development gives you clear answers to questions such as:

 - How can we adopt agile development?
 - Do we really need to pair programs?
 - What metrics should we report?
 - What if I can't get my customer to participate?
 - How much documentation should we write?
 - When do we design and architect?
 - As a non-developer, how should I work with my agile team?
 - Where is my product roadmap?
 - How does QA fit in?

XP practices are explained in detail in this book, followed by principles to allow you to modify XP and create your own agile process. 

There is a particular focus in this book on the difficult aspects of agile development: the need for team members to cooperate and trust one another.

You will find useful tips in this book to start practicing agile development, whether you're a member of an agile team, working with an agile team, or just interested in agile development. 

With your experience growing, the book will teach you first how to understand agile development rules, then how to break them, and ultimately get rid of rules altogether as you master agile development.


My Book Highlights:


"... We’re all doing the same thing — getting stuff done. We work together to make it happen, and we jump back and forth between all the normal development activities as the situation dictates..."


The book covers the principles and practices of Agile development, and how to apply them to software development projects.

The authors cover the key practices and strategies needed to successfully implement Agile, including pair programming, test-driven development, and continuous integration.
The book provides real-world examples and case studies from the author's experience implementing Agile in various organizations.

The book covers the importance of communication, collaboration, and customer involvement in the Agile process.

The book includes practical tips, tools, and checklists to help teams implement Agile effectively.

Chapters of the Book:

Part I: Getting Started
   Why Agile?
   How to Be Agile
   Understanding XP
   Adopting XP

Part II: Practicing XP
   Thinking
      Pair Programming
      Energized Work
      Informative Workspace
      Root-Cause Analysis
      Retrospectives

   Collaborating
      Trust
      Sit Together
      Real Customer Involvement
      Ubiquitous Language
      Stand-Up Meetings
      Coding Standards
      Iteration Demo

    Releasing
      "Done Done"
      No Bugs
      Version Control
      Ten-Minute Build
      Continuous Integration
      Collective Code Ownership
      Documentation

   Planning
      Vision
      Release Planning
      The Planning Game
      Risk Management
      Iteration Planning
      Slack
      Stories
      Estimating

   Developing
      Incremental Requirements
      Customer Tests
      Test-Driven Development
      Refactoring
      Simple Design
      Incremental Design and Architecture
      Spike Solutions
      Performance Optimization
      Exploratory Testing

Part III: Mastering Agility
   Values and Principles
   Improve the Process
   Rely on People
   Eliminate Waste
   Deliver Value
   Seek Technical Excellence

In conclusion, "The Art of Agile Development" is a valuable resource for anyone interested in understanding and implementing Agile software development methodologies. 

The authors, James Shore and Shane Warden, provide a comprehensive overview of Agile development, including Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, and Crystal, and offer real-world examples and case studies to illustrate the key practices and strategies needed to successfully implement Agile. 

The book also covers the importance of communication, collaboration, and customer involvement in the Agile process, and includes practical tips, tools, and checklists to help teams implement Agile effectively. 

It's a must-read for anyone involved in software development looking to improve their Agile skills and knowledge.

James Shore has been leading teams in Agile development since 1999. James has been speaking, teaching, and writing about Agile methods ever since. James has contributed a large number of projects and ideas to the Agile community. He authored the first test-driven development framework for .NET web programming and coordinated the development of Ward Cunningham's Fit, the first major acceptance-testing tool. 

Shane Warden manages Onyx Neon Press, an independent publisher. His areas of expertise include agile software development, language design, and virtual machines for dynamic languages. He is also a published novelist. His books include The Art of Agile Development and Masterminds of Programming.

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