Exploring Extreme Programming
The Seven-Day Weekend, Ricardo Semler. Portfolio, 2004. “Empowerment” has been a buzzword, but Semler makes it happen in his organization. He encourages people to make their own decisions and take the consequences, and puts that in action in “his” company. Continue reading Review – The Seven-Day Weekend
Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas. Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising, Addison-Wesley, 2005. How do you help a new idea along? This book uses patterns to suggest ways to make that happen. The first part of the book Continue reading Review – Fearless Change
Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, 2/e, by Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004. ISBN 0321278658. Kent Beck’s new introduction to the practices and philosophy of XP. See an extended summary. (Reviewed Feb., ’05)
A review of the new version of Extreme Programming Explained. Continue reading Overview of “Extreme Programming Explained, 2/e”
Office Kaizen: Transforming Office Operations into a Strategic Competitive Advantage, William Lareau. ASQ, 2003. This book applies lean ideas to office work. Many of its ideas will be familiar to people in agile, but applied in the non-software world: charters, Continue reading Review – Office Kaizen
Crystal Clear, Alistair Cockburn. Addison-Wesley, 2004. Crystal Clear is a software method that uses frequent delivery, reflective improvement, and osmotic communication as guard rails to guide a team in development. This book presents a number of perspectives on the methods; Continue reading Review – Crystal Clear
Mapping Inner Space, 2/e, Nancy Margulies with Nusa Maal. Zephyr Press, 2002. This book presents techniques for visual maps, their version of mind maps. You can certainly learn the basics without this book, but it makes great use of color Continue reading Review – Mapping Inner Space
Working Effectively with Legacy Code, Michael Feathers. Prentice Hall, 2004. Michael has distilled a lot of knowledge about how to safely improve code when you lack the safety net of tests. For example, there are places where you’ll take smaller Continue reading Review – Working Effectively with Legacy Code
JUnit Pocket Guide, Kent Beck. O’Reilly, 2004. This is a quick intro to using JUnit for testing. It’s a quick read. Along with reference information about JUnit, it’s got a quick version of the philosophy behind Test-Driven Development. (Reviewed December, Continue reading Review – JUnit Pocket Guide
Fluxx, from Looney Labs. You start with three cards, and the rule “Draw one, play one.” Your goal is to find a goal card that matches what you have, such as “Milk and Cookies” or “Appliances.” Along the way, you Continue reading Review – Fluxx