Tag Archives: agile

Review – Agile Project Management with Scrum

Agile Project Management with Scrum, Ken Schwaber. Microsoft Press, 2004.This book presents stories from several software teams adopting Scrum. It takes stories from several perspectives such as “The Product Owner” or “Scaling Projects using Scrum.” What I like best is … Continue reading

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Review – Extreme Programming Adventures in C#C

Extreme Programming Adventures in C#, Ron Jeffries. Microsoft Press, 2004. ISBN 0735619492. Ron uses the vehicle of learning C# to demonstrate the incremental design of an XML editor. He adds "undo" last (a feature often cited as requiring up-front design), … Continue reading

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Review – Agile Management

Agile Management for Software Engineering, David J. Anderson. Prentice Hall, 2004. This book applies throughput accounting to software development. (This approach originated in Theory of Constraints and fits with lean manufacturing) Throughput accounting focuses on the rate of sales as … Continue reading

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Review – Radical Project Management

Radical Project Management, by Rob Thomsett. Prentice Hall, 2002.I don’t know why the title says “Radical”, as throughout the book it’s “eXtreme Project Management.” Thomsett develops a project management approach that considers value throughout the project’s whole life cycle. He … Continue reading

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Review – The Knowledge-Creating Company

The Knowledge-Creating Company, by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi. Oxford University Press, This book describes how organizations can use the dynamics of knowledge creation; I've created an extended description and discussion as an XPlorations article. (Reviewed Feb., '04)

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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 … Continue reading

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Review – Paper Prototyping

Paper Prototyping, by Carolyn Snyder. Morgan Kaufmann, 2003. The “Scandinavian design” tradition in human-computer interaction says that people should be involved in creating the systems they will have to use. Electronic tools for rapid screen design may provide a high-fidelity … Continue reading

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Review – Domain-Driven Design

Domain-Driven Design, by Eric Evans. Addison Wesley, 2004. Evans has developed a pattern language that focuses on how thinking about our domain needs to be of primary importance in developing software. This understanding should show up consistently in how customers … Continue reading

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Review – Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions

Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions: A Catalogue of Modern Software Engineering Paradigms, Peter DeGrace and Leslie Hulet Stahl, Prentice-Hall, 1990.This book is a critique of the waterfall model, and a description of a number of alternative models. It has an early … Continue reading

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Review – Lean Software Development (Poppendieck and Poppendieck)

Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit. Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck. Addison-Wesley, 2003.This book considers software development from the perspective of lean manufacturing, as popularized by Toyota. In lean approaches, there is a sense in which there is a constant … Continue reading

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Review – Quality Software Management, vol. 4: Anticipating Change

Quality Software Management, Volume 4: Anticipating Change, Gerald M. Weinberg, Dorset House, 1997.This book contains advice for people who are trying to be change artists, those who change their world. One technique they use is to provide a number of … Continue reading

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Review – The Deadline

The Deadline: A Novel about Project Management, Tom DeMarco, Dorset House, 1997.A thought experiment in novel form: what would happen if we could run the same project multiple ways in a project management laboratory? The main character keeps a journal … Continue reading

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Review – Quality Software Management, vol. 2: First-Order Measurement

Quality Software Management, Volume 2: First-Order Measurement, Gerald M. Weinberg, Dorset House, 1997.First-order measurement is the use of back-of-the-envelope calculations sufficient for building something. Weinberg relates Satir’s interaction model (intake, meaning, significance, and response) to software management. The author suggests … Continue reading

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Review – Pair Programming Illuminated

Pair Programming Illuminated, Laurie Williams and Robert Kessler. Addison-Wesley, 2002. How to program in pairs. Describes problems pairs face when mixing experience levels or personality types. Has suggestions for improving pairing. (Reviewed Nov., '02)

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Review – The Pragmatic Programmer

The Pragmatic Programmer, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas. Addison-Wesley, 2000. Skills and ideas every programmer should know. (Reviewed Nov., '02)

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