James Shore - The Art of Agile Development

Copyright 2008 James Shore and Shane Warden

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What if you dont want to master a so-called art? What if you just want to develop good software?

Dont worrythis book is for you, too. Parts I and II are just what you need. We took our years of experience with agile development and Extreme Programming and distilled them into a single, clearly defined, comprehensive approach.

This approach allows us to use plain, straightforward language without caveats or digressions. We get to include a lot of practical tips. We candidly describe when our approach wont work and what alternatives to consider when it doesnt.

Theres a downside to discussing just one approach: no single methodology is appropriate for everyone. Our advice may not be appropriate for your team or situation. Be sure to read before putting our advice into practice.

You may be able to adopt part of XP even if you cant adopt all of it. The Contraindications section of each practice in Part II describes when a practice is inappropriate. If this applies to your situation, the Alternatives section will help you decide what to do instead.

Dont go too far and automatically assume that a particular practice wont work for you. Some of the ideas in this book are counterintuitive or just dont sound like fun. Most of them work best in concert with the others. If you can, try the practices as written for a few months, gain some real-world experience on how they work in your environment, and then change them.

Weve been putting these ideas into practice for years. In the right environment, they really work. Agile development has been more fun, and more successful, than any other approach to team software development weve tried. Come join the ride.

This book is for anyone who is, will be, or wants to be part of an agile team. That includes programmers, of course, but it also includes domain experts, testers, projects managers, architects, designers, and business analysts. Agile teams are cross-functional; this book reflects that fact.

If youre a leader or youre interested in bringing agile development to your team or organization, you should read the whole book from cover to cover. Part I introduces agile concepts and describes how to adopt XP. Part II describes each of XPs practices in detail. Part III goes beyond XP, looking at the principles that allow you to create your own agile method by customizing XP to your particular situation.

If you just want to learn enough to do your job, you can focus primarily on Part II. Start with in Part I to get an overview, then read through the practices in Part II that apply to your work. Each practice starts with a description of the audience it applies to, such as Programmers, Customers, or Testers.

If youre merely curious about agile development, start by reading Part I. Again, provides a good introduction. Afterwards, take a look at the practices in Part II. Start with the ones that look most interesting; you can read them in any order.