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“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.
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.
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Customer Reviews
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.
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.
For example, we see a list of methodology design principles. One of which is independent of whether you use Agile or not, and which especially caught my eye. It says that larger teams need heavier methodologies. There are several methodologies floating around in the IT industry. And Agile is only one of these. But that particular principle can be very useful. As the text explains, with 6 or less people, say, you can put them in one room, and have little or even no methodology. Because people can just talk and plan things together. But as teams get bigger, and they get dispersed over different rooms, buildings and cities, then you need more elaborate methodologies. And your choice need not even be Agile.
The book also has a writing style with lots of little side notes or anecdotes, that can help some readers assimilate the ideas in the main narrative.
The biggest problem to me with the book is its relatively uncritical acceptance of XP (Extreme Programming). It quotes that the first XP project was successful, in delivering results, compared to a larger team that had failed. But the first XP project that I am aware of, from another text, "Extreme Programming Refactored", was at Chrysler, and it failed to meet its deliverables. That book gave a far more plausible analysis of XP and its brittleness. Cockburn's text does allow that XP can have its limitations if the team gets too big. Because both admirers and critics of XP generally acknowledge that an XP team must intensively share knowledge and coordinate actions, and this just does not scale.
But if we put XP aside, then the Agile approach can be useful.
Wrestling with this book for the last few weeks has been frustrating, to say the least. I was struggling to understand why, after reading on and on I wasn't able to summarize to myself the central message was of what I'd just read, and finding myself at a loss to see the thread in a chapter or see how the chapters built on each other.
I came here to see if others were having the same difficulty with it-- strangely surprised to see praise for quoting the philosophy of Wittgenstein and the still levels of Aikido. Looking back at the reviews of the first edition I found more critical opinions, and it was there that I finally understood why this text just didn't 'jibe' with me.
Paraphrasing another reviewer, he had it right I think describing this book as a text about the formalisms of methodologies. This is not a book about Agile per se, but about how Agile fits into the ontology of methodology. The problem is not that the book is too abstract-- I greatly admire Bjarne Stroustrup, for example, for his ability to use theoretical underpinnings in a practically useful way. The problem with this book is that it is not really about Agile but about 'methodology.'
Ultimately I think this is a book for a very specific audience. Is is probably a fantastic discussion point for those making a living talking about the theory of methodology-- but, unfortunately for me, it is going to be of very little use to a practicioner.
Still more kudos to any author who heavily references 'philosophy' and then correctly references a real contemporary philosopher (Wittgenstein)!
Sadly though, I would have loved to see cooperative game mapped out a bit more. The tools of game theory are there, so we should use them.
My favorite take aways: ShuHaRi analogy, Cooperative Game analogy, Selection of *implemented* project methodologies as starting points, and a methodology to create methodologies. All in All this is an excellent book to get you started in Agile or to bring you up to date with the 'why' questions of Agile.
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