AoAD2 Chapter: Development (introduction)

This is an excerpt from The Art of Agile Development, Second Edition. Visit the Second Edition home page for additional excerpts and more!

This excerpt is copyright 2007, 2021 by James Shore and Shane Warden. Although you are welcome to share this link, do not distribute or republish the content without James Shore’s express written permission.

Development

It’s startling how rarely software development processes actually talk about the nuts and bolts of development. The way your team develops matters. It’s how you spend most of your time.

This chapter includes practices to speed up your development and make it more reliable:

  • The “Zero Friction” practice removes the delays that slow down development.

  • The “Continuous Integration” practice keeps your latest code ready to release.

  • The “Test-Driven Development” practice ensures your software does exactly what programmers intend it to do.

  • The “Fast Reliable Tests” practice prevents tests from becoming a bottleneck.

  • The “Refactoring” practice enables programmers to improve the design of existing code.

  • The “Spike Solutions” practice helps programmers learn through small, isolated experiments.

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