Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams: Staying Agile in a Global World

Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams: Staying Agile in a Global World

by Jutta Eckstein
Released July 2013
Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 9780133492385

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Book description

This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 2010).

All software projects face the challenges of diverse distances -- temporal, geographical, cultural, lingual, political, historical, and more. Many forms of distance even affect developers in the same room. The goal of this book is to reconcile two mainstays of modern agility: the close collaboration agility relies on, and project teams distributed across different cities, countries, and continents.

In Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams, Jutta Eckstein asserts that, in fact, agile methods and the constant communication they require are uniquely capable of solving the challenges of distributed projects. Agility is responsiveness to change -- in other words, agile practitioners maintain flexibility to accommodate changing circumstances and results. Iterative development serves the learning curve that global project teams must scale.

This book is not about how to outsource and forget your problems. Rather, Eckstein details how to carefully select development partners and integrate efforts and processes to form a better product than any single contributor could deliver on his or her own. The author de-emphasizes templates and charts and favors topical discussion and exploration. Practitioners share experiences in their own words in short stories throughout the book. Eckstein trains readers to be change agents, to creatively apply the concepts in this book to form a customized distributed project plan for success.

Topics include:

Understanding Distributed Development
The Productivity Myth
Ensuring Conceptual Integrity
Trust and Mutual Respect
Iterations and Releases
Using Features to Steer the Development Effort
Team Velocity
Virtual Retrospectives
Dispersed Synchronization
Introducing Agility to Global Projects
and much more

Table of contents

  1. About This eBook
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Also Available from Dorset House Publishing
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Contents
  7. Preface
  8. 1. Getting Started
    1. Focus
    2. Intended Audience
    3. Perspective
    4. Roadmap to the Book
  9. 2. Assessing Agility and Distributed Projects
    1. Understanding Distributed Development
    2. Working With Several Development Sites
    3. Distributed and Dispersed Teams
    4. Large Projects
    5. Coordinating Companies
    6. Different Sites
    7. Customers and Distance
    8. Centrally Coordinated or Globally Integrated
    9. Understanding Agility
    10. Agile Principles Influencing Globally Distributed Projects
    11. Summary
  10. 3. Building Teams
    1. Feature Teams
    2. Roles
    3. Ensuring Conceptual Integrity
    4. Summary
  11. 4. Establishing Communication and Trust
    1. Trust and Mutual Respect
    2. Communication
    3. Cultural Differences
    4. Summary
  12. 5. Keeping Sites in Touch
    1. Communication Facilitator
    2. Ambassador
    3. Social Connections
    4. Tools
    5. Summary
  13. 6. Ensuring Development and Delivery
    1. Iterations
    2. Releases
    3. Integration and Build
    4. Local Success First
    5. Infrastructure
    6. Tools
    7. Summary
  14. 7. Ensuring Business Value
    1. Steering Through Valuable Features
    2. Team Velocity
    3. Planning an Iteration
    4. Iteration Tracking
    5. Dealing With Change
    6. Overall Project Plan
    7. Summary
  15. 8. Eliciting Feedback and Conducting Retrospectives
    1. Customer Feedback
    2. Review Meetings
    3. Retrospectives
    4. Metrics
    5. Summary
  16. 9. Honing Practices
    1. Development Practices
    2. Process Practices
    3. Summary
  17. 10. Introducing Agility into New and Existing Distributed Projects
    1. Growing Teams and Growing Sites
    2. Introducing Agile to an Existing Project
    3. Summary
  18. Afterword
  19. Glossary
  20. References
    1. Articles
    2. Books
    3. URL
  21. Index

Product information

  • Title: Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams: Staying Agile in a Global World
  • Author(s): Jutta Eckstein
  • Release date: July 2013
  • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
  • ISBN: 9780133492385