Product Description

“Agile Software Development is a highly stimulating and rich book. The author has a deep background and gives us a tour de force of the emerging agile methods.”

–Tom Gilb

The agile model of software development has taken the world by storm. Now, in Agile Software Development, Second Edition, one of agile’s leading pioneers updates his Jolt Productivity award-winning book to reflect all that’s been learned about agile development since its original introduction.

Alistair Cockburn begins by updating his powerful model of software development as a “cooperative game of invention and communication.” Among the new ideas he introduces: harnessing competition without damaging collaboration; learning lessons from lean manufacturing; and balancing strategies for communication. Cockburn also explains how the cooperative game is played in business and on engineering projects, not just software development

Next, he systematically illuminates the agile model, shows how it has evolved, and answers the questions developers and project managers ask most often, including

·      Where does agile development fit in our organization?

·      How do we blend agile ideas with other ideas?

·      How do we extend agile ideas more broadly?

Cockburn takes on crucial misconceptions that cause agile projects to fail. For example, you’ll learn why encoding project management strategies into fixed processes can lead to ineffective strategy decisions and costly mistakes. You’ll also find a thoughtful discussion of the controversial relationship between agile methods and user experience design.

Cockburn turns to the practical challenges of constructing agile methodologies for your own teams. You’ll learn how to tune and continuously reinvent your methodologies, and how to manage incomplete communication. This edition contains important new contributions on these and other topics:

·      Agile and CMMI

·      Introducing agile from the top down

·      Revisiting “custom contracts”

·      Creating change with “stickers”

In addition, Cockburn updates his discussion of the Crystal methodologies, which utilize his “cooperative game” as their central metaphor.

If you’re new to agile development, this book will help you succeed the first time out. If you’ve used agile methods before, Cockburn’s techniques will make you even more effective.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65393 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 504 pages

From the Back Cover

“Agile Software Development is a highly stimulating and rich book. The author has a deep background and gives us a tour de force of the emerging agile methods.”

–Tom Gilb

The agile model of software development has taken the world by storm. Now, in Agile Software Development, Second Edition, one of agile’s leading pioneers updates his Jolt Productivity award-winning book to reflect all that’s been learned about agile development since its original introduction.

Alistair Cockburn begins by updating his powerful model of software development as a “cooperative game of invention and communication.” Among the new ideas he introduces: harnessing competition without damaging collaboration; learning lessons from lean manufacturing; and balancing strategies for communication. Cockburn also explains how the cooperative game is played in business and on engineering projects, not just software development

Next, he systematically illuminates the agile model, shows how it has evolved, and answers the questions developers and project managers ask most often, including

·      Where does agile development fit in our organization?

·      How do we blend agile ideas with other ideas?

·      How do we extend agile ideas more broadly?

Cockburn takes on crucial misconceptions that cause agile projects to fail. For example, you’ll learn why encoding project management strategies into fixed processes can lead to ineffective strategy decisions and costly mistakes. You’ll also find a thoughtful discussion of the controversial relationship between agile methods and user experience design.

Cockburn turns to the practical challenges of constructing agile methodologies for your own teams. You’ll learn how to tune and continuously reinvent your methodologies, and how to manage incomplete communication. This edition contains important new contributions on these and other topics:

·      Agile and CMMI

·      Introducing agile from the top down

·      Revisiting “custom contracts”

·      Creating change with “stickers”

In addition, Cockburn updates his discussion of the Crystal methodologies, which utilize his “cooperative game” as their central metaphor.

If you’re new to agile development, this book will help you succeed the first time out. If you’ve used agile methods before, Cockburn’s techniques will make you even more effective.

About the Author

Dr. Alistair Cockburn is an internationally renowned expert on all aspects of software development, from object-oriented modeling and architecture, to methodology design, to project management and organizational alignment. One of the pioneers who coined the term “agile software development,” he co-authored the 2001 Agile Software Development Manifesto and the 2005 Declaration of Interdependence. Since 1975, he has led projects and taught in places from Oslo to Cape Town, from Vancouver to Beijing. His work has covered topics from design to management to testing, in research, in government, and in industry. His most recent book is Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams. His books Writing Effective Use Cases and Agile Software Development won back-to-back Jolt Productivity Awards in 2001 and 2002.

Customer Reviews

Useful but too much waffle
Open this book at a random page and read it. You'll find it well-written, easy-to-read and to some extent entertaining. The page you read will no doubt contain reflections on some past project done many years ago, issues in that project, some common sense reasons for those issues, some theories about how software should be developed, and a list of things for the reader to think about in their own project.
Which sounds great !
But carry on reading and you'll get more of the same, on the next page, and the page after that....etc.

1. Too much waffle.
He uses lots of clever words without saying very much. He repeats himself many times.

2. Not very objective
He seems to gather evidence to support his argument rather than look at things objectively. He tells stories of how projects using other methodologies have failed and how agile would have succeeded.
He ignores successful non-agile projects. He doesn't reflect on failed agile projects.
His acceptance of extreme programming is particularly unjustified.

3. Not practical enough
He doesn't say "this is how you do agile development, this is how it works, this is how you can implement it in your projects, these are its good points and points, don't use it here! ".

I like the idea of developing theories and user stories, and common sense says that you should not try to use the same patterns and practices for every project. Beyond this there is little real-world practical advice.

If you're in the Agile cult you will love it. If you like theorising you will love it. If, like myself, you're a seasoned pro you will recognise many of the highlighted issues, agree with most of the suggestions, be annoyed at some of the leaps of faith made, and be frustrated at his inability to get to the point and map out concrete, practical solutions.

If you only ever buy one "how to build software" book, this should be it
This isnt a "techniques" book. It's more like a meta-methodology book i.e. it shows you what processes your team should consider using.
There's a lot of psychology in here as agile is more of an "ethos" than a set of techniques.
But, nonetheless, this is required reading for anyone in the software industry.