The Art of Agile Development: Now Available!

Book cover

Order it now from Amazon!

I'm happy to announce the availability of The Art of Agile Development, by Shane Warden and myself. Our goal for this book was to provide a complete how-to guide and starter kit for beginning and intermediate agile practitioners. To keep the book concrete and practical, we focus on XP. If you're new to agile and are looking for a simple, direct, and comprehensive "how to" guide, I think you'll like our book.

Experienced practitioners will find a lot to like as well. We have detailed coverage of areas that often challenge teams: how to involve testers; how to have nearly zero bugs; how to mix design and architecture with incremental, customer-focused development; and release planning strategies and tactics. I'm particularly happy with our inclusion of risk management practices that allow you to make specific release commitments.

Experts--you know who you are--won't find much new in our book. You might be interested in our approach to functional testing (see the "No Bugs" practice), the risk-adjusted burn-up chart ("Risk Management" practice) and our discussion of agile principles (Part III). Our goal was to help our readers "master the art of agile development"--to have a intuitive understanding of the principles underlying XP and agile development. If you're an expert, you're already there. The primary value for experts, I think, will be as a reference for the teams you're coaching. Brian Marick said, "I will leave a copy of this book with every team I visit." Perhaps that's the value the book brings for you, too.

Shane and I packed everything we knew about the day-to-day practice of agile development into 400 pages. I'm very proud of the result. I hope you like it.

Special discount for people who read this far! (Hey, thanks!)

You can get a 35% discount by ordering direct from O'Reilly through March 2008. Just use the "JVAGL" coupon code. (Sorry, due to the obscure inner workings of the O'Reilly store, this offer is for US and UK residents only.)

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