Review – DSDM

DSDM: Business Focused Development, 2/e, by the DSDM Consortium, edited by Jennifer Stapleton. Addison-Wesley, 2003.
DSDM is an agile software method. It grew out of experience with RAD (Rapid Application Development) in the mid-1990s. Its focus is most heavy on the front end, without a lot to say about how the software is implemented per se. The first principle they have is “Active user involvement is imperative”; they use timeboxing and dictate iterative and incremental development, and require that decisions be reversible. I liked the first half of the book (explaining the philosophy and practices) a lot better than the second half (case studies). That might just be me though. (Reviewed Feb., ’04)