Product Description

eXtreme Programming is an ideal many software shops would love to reach, but with the constant pressures to produce software quickly, they cannot actually implement it. The Agile software process allows a company to implement eXtreme Programming quickly and immediately-and to begin producing software incrementally in as little as 30 days! Implementing eXtreme Programming is easier said than done. The process can be time consuming and actually slow down current software projects that are in process. This book shows readers how to use SCRUM, an Agile software development process, to quickly and seamlessly implement XP in their shop-while still producing actual software. Using SCRUM and the Agile process can virtually eliminate all downtime during an XP implementation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63335 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 158 pages

Review

"Agile development methods are key to the future of flexible software systems. Scrum is one of the vanguards of the new way to buy and manage software development when business conditions are changing. This book distills both the theory and practice and is essential reading for anyone who needs to cope with software in a volatile world." — Martin Fowler, industry consultant and CTO, ThoughtWorks

"Most executives today are not happy with their organization's ability to deliver systems at reasonable cost and timeframes. Yet, if pressed, they will admit that they don't think their software developers are not competent. If it's not the engineers, then what is it that prevents fast development at reasonable cost? Scrum gives the answer to the question and the solution to the problem. — Alan Buffington, industry consultant, former Present, Fidelity Systems Company

From the Back Cover

Arguably the most important book about managing technology and systems development efforts, this book describes building systems using the deceptively simple process, Scrum. Readers will come to understand a new approach to systems development projects that cuts through the complexity and ambiguity of complex, emergent requirements and unstable technology to iteratively and quickly produce quality software.

• Learn how to immediately start producing software incrementally regardless of existing engineering practices or methodologies
• Learn how to simplify the implementation of Agile processes
• Learn how to simplify XP implementation through a Scrum wrapper
• Learn why Agile processes work and how to manage them
• Understand the theoretical underpinnings of Agile processes

About the Author

Ken Schwaber is president of Advanced Development Methods (ADM), a company dedicated to improving the software development practice. He is an experienced software developer, product manager, and industry consultant. Schwaber initiated the process management product revolution of the early 1990's and also worked with Jeff Sutherland to formulate the initial versions of the Scrum development process.

Mike Beedle, an experienced software development practitioner, is the founder and CEO of e-Architects, Inc., a management and technical consulting company that helps its clients develop software in record time. Beedle has contributed to thousands of software projects for the last 20 years, and has used, recommended, and guided others to implement Scrum since 1995.

Customer Reviews

A paradigm shift in software development
5 stars to the writers, less of them to the publisher (you don't get to see graphics that bad these days). I read 'Extreme Programming Explained' almost two years ago, enjoyed it, and changed some of my views on the development process; I adopted some practices, but the XP Planning Game did not fit in our process. I the read 'Agile Software Development Ecosystems', enjoyed it, and learned that XP was not the only alternative to the conventional software development process. Now, Scrum, and its well thought simplicity, has shown me a proven and understandable way to manage software projects, and deepened the changes that the XP book stared on me.

The discussion on the "defined process control model" vs the "empirical process control model", in Chapter 2 and available on line, should be mandatory reading for any one involved with IT. Chapter 5 extends this discussion and is also outstanding.

Chapter 6 provides several models/views to explain Scrum; having several models of the same thing is something that you do very often when doing software design and deepens your understanding of the system; I liked the use of this technique in prose and the very interesting models covered.

Read it. You may not want to become a Scrum practitioner, but the book will probably change the way that you think about software development.

Ideas that work with new terminology
This book explains some very useful methods for delivering customer-focused solutions. Aside from a new set of terminology to get used to, the book cites the usefulness of: fast daily status meetings ("Scrums"), 'locked' 30-day iterations ("Sprints") that deliver working code at the end, small teams of 6-8 multi-skilled people, a prioritised book of work that is re-appraised every 30 days ("Backlog"), regular assessment of the work effort in the backlog rather than using a project plan, collective responsibility for delivery. I have seen people use these methods in successful projects within my company but they didn't know they were using Scrum, they were just doing things that they felt were right, have worked for them in the past and enabled them to focus on driving out a solution that would meet the real needs of the users.

Good message but poor value
I'm disappointed with this book. I hoped to find much more depth about Scrum than can be gleaned from the Web. What it has to say, it says well, and the general point (that Scrum is better) is competently argued and substantiated. The reasons I can only give three stars are: firstly, the quality of graphics is appalling (could be bettered by a six year old with a Mac Plus); secondly, the price: this book would be fine for £[...].