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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8527 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From the Back Cover

Agile/iterative methods: From business case to successful implementation

This is the definitive guide for managers and students to agile and iterative development methods: what they are, how they work, how to implement them—and why you should.

Using statistically significant research and large-scale case studies, noted methods expert Craig Larman presents the most convincing case ever made for iterative development. Larman offers a concise, information-packed summary of the key ideas that drive all agile and iterative processes, with the details of four noteworthy iterative methods: Scrum, XP, RUP, and Evo. Coverage includes:

• Compelling evidence that iterative methods reduce project risk
• Frequently asked questions
• Agile and iterative values and practices
• Dozens of useful iterative and agile practice tips
• New management skills for agile/iterative project leaders
• Key practices of Scrum, XP, RUP, and Evo

Whether you're an IT executive, project manager, student of software engineering, or developer, Craig Larman will help you understand the promise of agile/iterative development, sell it throughout your organizationaeand transform the promise into reality.

About the Author

CRAIG LARMAN is known throughout the international software community as an expert and passionate advocate for object-oriented technologies and development, and iterative and agile development methods. He serves as Chief Scientist at Valtech, a global consulting and skills transfer company, where he has led the adoption of iterative and agile methods. Larman also authored Applying UML and Patterns, the world's best-selling text on object-oriented analysis and design, and iterative development.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Overview

• What's in this book?
• Predictable versus new product development.

What value will you get from studying this book, an introduction to iterative and agile methods?

First, you will know the key practices of four noteworthy methods, Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), the Unified Process (UP), and Evo (one of the original iterative methods). This is a "Cliffs Notes" summary, each chapter has something useful to you as a manager, developer, or student of development methods.

Second, your learning curve will be shortened, as this is a distilled learning aid. The four method chapters have the same structure, to speed comprehension and compare-contrast. There's a FAQ chapter, a "tips" chapter of common practices, and plenty of margin pointers to related pages—paper hyperlinks.

Third, you will know motivation and evidence. Some organizations accept the value of iterative development, but others are still reluctant. If you need to make a case for an iterative project experiment, you will find in this book the key reasons, research, examples of large projects, standards-body acceptance, a business case, and promotion by well-known thought leaders through the decades. The research and history sections are also of value to students of software engineering methods.

Note that agile methods are a subset of iterative methods; this book covers both types.

The chapters may be read in any order; the big picture is this:

1. Introduction, and predictable vs. inventive development.

2. Basic iterative and evolutionary method practices.

3. Summary of agile principles and methods.

4. An agile project story to pull some ideas together.

5-6. Motivation and evidence chapters for iterative and agile methods; useful for some.

7-10. Four method summaries on Scrum, XP, UP, and Evo. Note: practices can be mixed.

11. A tips chapter that expands on some of the method practices, plus others.

12. A frequently asked questions (FAQ) chapter.

Finally, people trump process. Every process book should probably include this standard disclaimer:

Process is only a second-order effect. The unique people, their feelings, qualities, and communication are more influential.Some problems are just hard, some people are just difficult. These methods are not salvation.

Software Is New Product Development

Consider building mobile phones on an assembly line: It is possible to unambiguously define the specifications and construction steps. After building some phones and measuring things, it is possible to reliably estimate and schedule the building of future phones.

A different problem: Build a custom house. The owner wants to use new environmentally friendly materials and methods, but isn't exactly sure what they want, and is going to change or clarify their decisions as they see the house, costs, and weeks unfold.

At one end of the spectrum, such as manufacturing phones, there are problems with low degrees of novelty or change, and high rates of repeated identical or near-identical creation—mass manufacturing or predictable manufacturing.

At the other end, there are problems with high degrees of novelty, creativity, and change, and no previous identical cases from which to derive estimates or schedules. This is the realm of new product development or inventive projects.

The development process, management values, planning and estimation models appropriately associated with these two domains are different (Table 1.1).

Of course, the point is,

Most software is not a predictable or mass manufacturing problem. Software development is new product development.

Plus, many projects use new and buggy technologies that exacerbate the degree of novelty and unpredictability. Note also it is a new product for the inexperienced even if it has been done before.

Since predictable manufacturing is the wrong paradigm for software, practices and values rooted in it are not helpful.

This mismatch lies at the heart of many of the challenges associated with traditional approaches to running a software project.A "waterfall" lifecycle, big up-front specifications, estimates, and speculative plans applicable to predictable manufacturing have been misapplied to software projects, a domain of inventive, high-change, high-novelty work.

Factors CP86 preventing reliable up-front specifications include:

• The clients or users are not sure what they want.
• They have difficulty stating all they want and know.
• Many details of what they want will only be revealed during development.
• The details are overwhelmingly complex for people.
• As they see the product develop, they change their minds.
• External forces (such as a competitor's product or service) lead to changes or enhancements in requests.

This deep appreciation—that building software is complex, new product development with high change rates, and not predictable manufacturing—is at the heart of the motivation for agile and iterative methods.

Certainly, another driving force is the desire to compete and win. Iterative and agile methods foster flexibility and maneuverability—a competitive advantage. In Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations GNP97 the authors examine the limitations of the mass manufacturing model and the need for agility:

Agility ... is about succeeding and about winning: about succeeding in emerging competitive arenas, and about winning profits, market share, and customers in the very center of the competitive storms many companies now fear.

What's Next?

The next two chapters summarize basic practices and ideas of iterative, evolutionary, and agile methods. After that, a story chapter illustrates these practices with a concrete scenario.

Web Resources

Related book or journal article suggestions are given in their respective chapters. Web resource suggestions include:

Broad Link or Article Sites

www.agilealliance.com — Collects many articles specifically related to agile methods, plus links.

www.cetus-links.org — The Cetus Links site has specialized for years in object technology (OT). Under "OO Project Management—OOA/D Methods" it has many links to iterative and agile methods, even though they are not directly related to OT.

www.bradapp.net — Brad Appleton maintains a large collection of links on software engineering, including iterative methods.

www.iturls.com — The Chinese front page links to an English version, with a search engine referencing iterative and agile articles.

More Specific Sites

c2.com/cgi/wiki?FindPage — This important, vast Wiki site was the home ground where many of the agile leaders (and design pattern leaders) held their original discussions on XP and other agile methods.

www.extremeprogramming.org — Don Wells' (an early XP leader) introduction to XP.

www.xprogramming.com — Ron Jeffries' (an early XP leader) introduction to XP.

www.agilemodeling.com — Scott Ambler's site contains many articles related to agile modeling practices.

sunset.usc.edu — Associated with the work of Dr. Barry Boehm, a long-time researcher into iterative (e.g., Spiral) methods. Articles related to iterative methods.

www.cutter.com — Cutter's site has an Agile Project Management specialty area.

www.martinfowler.com — Martin Fowler is an early agile methods thought leader (XP method). Articles and links.

www.jimhighsmith.com — Jim Highsmith is an early agile methods thought leader (Adaptive Software Development method). Articles and links.

alistair.cockburn.us — Alistair Cockburn is an early agile methods thought leader (Crystal methods). Articles and links.

www.controlchaos.com — Ken Schwaber is an early agile methods thought leader (Scrum method). Articles and links.

jeffsutherland.com — Jeff Sutherland is an early agile methods thought leader (Scrum method). Articles and links.

www.gilb.com — Tom Gilb is one of the very earliest iterative and evolutionary thought leaders (Evo method). Articles and links.

www.craiglarman.com — My site. Articles and links.

www.objectmentor.com — Company led by Robert C. Martin, an early agile thought leader (XP related). Articles and links.

www.nebulon.com — Company led by Jeff De Luca, an early agile thought leader (Feature-Driven Development method). Articles and links.

www.dsdm.org — Official site for the DSDM method.

www.rational.com — Official site for the Rational Unified Process (RUP) iterative method.

name.case.unibz.it — Network for Agile Methodologies Experience (NAME). A European site that describes research into agile methods, and with links to other sites.

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Customer Reviews

Excellent survey of iterative and incremental development (IID) methodologies
This work by Larman shares some commonalities with Balancing Agility and Discipline, a work by Boehm and Turner (see my review for that book) in which a wide range of methodologies are compared side-by-side to determine the best fit for teams. However, rather than serving as a guide to determine best fit from a wide assortment of methodologies, Larman's work is limited to a discussion of Scrum, XP, Unified Process (i.e. RUP/UP), and Evo, within the broader context of what the author categories as iterative and incremental development (IID). In my opinion, this book is probably the best organized text on this subject currently available in the marketplace. Although the subtitle for this work categorizes itself as a manager's guide, the content Larman has included here will prove beneficial for anyone involved in software development. And this is the case even if one does not read the four methodology-specific chapters. After a thorough explanation of iterative and evolutionary development, the author discusses its relationship to agile development and the motivation behind adopting such methodologies. The subsequent chapter on the evidence behind the effectiveness of IID is the most concise listing of research findings I have come across. While this chapter begins with a warning that "exhaustive data can make for exhaustive reading" and that it is "probably best spot-read as a reference", at only about 30 pages in length it is well recommended. While many in technology recognize the benefits of IID and have used the ideas brought to the table by various IID methodologies to some extent, the author reminds the reader that not only do many technology shops simply remain paralyzed by waterfall methods that view software as a predictive process, but that IID has been around for decades. David L. Parnas, a software engineering pioneer who developed the concept of module design, is quoted by Larman as follows. "Q: What are the most exciting, promising software engineering ideas or techniques on the horizon? A: I don't think that the most promising ideas are on the horizon. They are already here and have been for years, but are not being used properly." I found the following sections within the specific methodology discussions to be especially beneficial: common mistakes and misunderstandings (or how to fail with a particular methodology), signs that one has not understood a particular methodology, sample projects, process mixtures, and adoption strategies. In addition, the reader might be interested in knowing that the last chapter consists solely of questions and answers summarizing many of the main discussions presented elsewhere in the preceding eleven chapters, serving as a quick reference by pointing to specific portions of the text where ideas are elaborated upon.

Great comprehensive guide
Unlike many of the books out there, this book covers iterative development techniques in general. The book is well organized and structured and gives a good framework for thinking about different ways to manage a project and develop software. Agile, Scrum, Extreme Programming, Unified Process and Evo are all covered and compared which is invaluable in deciding which one to use or, more likely, which elements can be used for your projects.
Finally, some practice tips and a FAQ are provided to help you succeed in applying these methods to your project as well as answering the questions your team may come up with.
I found this book easy to read and understand and now feel well equipped to apply these techniques.

Informative but boring
This book tries to provide an overview of several different "non-Waterfall" techniques for managing and organizing projects. The authors are pretty scrupulous about not really advocating one method over another, and as such, I did not find it particularly helpful for my own situation with my software team. Reading about Evo, XP, Scrum, RUP etc. all in one place with key characteristics and comparing their "levels of ceremony" might be interesting to project management/methodology researchers, but there aren't very many professionals out there who are sold on iterative development but are wondering which one they should use.

The book also is fairly technical, with lots of grids and charts trying to explain which levels of critical projects should be considered for a methodology, how levels of effort of different tasks change over time, who the stakeholders are and what to label them, and so forth. I got practically zero out of this.

On the positive side, now that I've read it I am armed to discuss the different methodologies much more, in case a new person arrives advocating a methodology I disagree with or something. I can use this overview knowledge to also pick and choose some terms or approaches which might be helpful in my situation at work. The part of the book which was most interesting was a chapter in which a typical Scrum project was described in narrative form. I think more of that, such as perhaps a narrative illustrating each methodology, would have been more helpful to those trying to decide which methodology to follow in future work.

For the audience of PMs who don't want to know the ins and outs of every IID methodology since the 70's, though, and just want to know how to run their projects better, I don't think this book will fill their need. Or if it does, it will be from the readers picking and choosing little bits across the book--something the authors recommend against.