The Art of Agile Development

For the Pragmatists

What if you don’t want to master a so-called art? What if you just want to develop good software?

Don’t worry—this book is for you, too. Parts I and II are just what you need. We took our years of experience with agile development and Extreme Programming and distilled them into a single, clearly defined, comprehensive approach.

This approach allows us to use plain, straightforward language without caveats or digressions. We get to include a lot of practical tips. We candidly describe when our approach won’t work and what alternatives to consider when it doesn’t.

There’s a downside to discussing just one approach: no single methodology is appropriate for everyone. Our advice may not be appropriate for your team or situation. Be sure to read Chapter 4 before putting our advice into practice.

You may be able to adopt part of XP even if you can’t adopt all of it. The “Contraindications” section of each practice in Part II describes when a practice is inappropriate. If this applies to your situation, the “Alternatives” section will help you decide what to do instead.

Don’t go too far and automatically assume that a particular practice won’t work for you. Some of the ideas in this book are counterintuitive or just don’t sound like fun. Most of them work best in concert with the others. If you can, try the practices as written for a few months, gain some real-world experience on how they work in your environment, and then change them.

We’ve been putting these ideas into practice ...