Agile Adoption Patterns: A Roadmap to Organizational Success (Paperback)

by Amr Elssamadisy (Author)
Key Phrases: agile software development, planning poker, legacy code, Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall, New Jersey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Proven Patterns and Techniques for Succeeding with Agile in Your Organization

 

Agile methods promise to help you create software that delivers far more business value—and do it faster, at lower cost, and with less pain. However, many organizations struggle with implementation and leveraging these methods to their full benefit. In this book, Amr Elssamadisy identifies the powerful lessons that have been learned about successfully moving to agile and distills them into 30 proven agile adoption patterns.

 

Elssamadisy walks you through the process of defining your optimal agile adoption strategy with case studies and hands-on exercises that illuminate the key points. He systematically examines the most common obstacles to agile implementation, identifying proven solutions. You’ll learn where to start, how to choose the best agile practices for your business and technical environment, and how to adopt agility incrementally, building on steadily growing success.

 

Next, he presents the definitive agile adoption pattern reference: all the information you need to implement the strategy that you’ve already defined. Utilizing the classic pattern format, he explains each agile solution in its proper context, revealing why it works—and how to make the most of it. The pattern reference prepares you to

 

• Understand the core drivers, principles, and values associated with agile success
• Tightly focus development on delivering business value–and recognize the “smells” of a project headed off track
• Gain rapid, effective feedback practices: iteration, kickoff and stand-up meetings, demos, retrospectives, and much more
• Foster team development: co-location, self-organization, cross-functional roles, and how to bring the customer aboard
• Facilitate technical tasks and processes: testing, refactoring, continuous integration, simple design, collective code ownership, and pair programming
• Act as an effective coach, learning to engage the community and promote learning
• Integrate “clusters” of agile practices that work exceptionally well together

 

Agile Adoption Patterns will help you whether you’re planning your first agile project, trying to improve your next project, or evangelizing agility throughout your organization. This actionable advice is designed to work with any agile method, from XP and Scrum to Crystal Clear and Lean. The practical insights will make you more effective in any agile project role: as leader, developer, architect, or customer.

 

 

Foreword xxiii & xxvi

Preface xxvii

Acknowledgments xxxiii

About the Author xxxvii

 

Part 1: Thoughts about Software Development 1

Chapter 1: Learning Is the Bottleneck 3

Chapter 2: Personal Agility for Potent Agile Adoption 13

 

Part 2: Crafting an Agile Adoption Strategy 21

Chapter 3: Business Value 23

Chapter 4: Smells 29

Chapter 5: Adopting Agile Practices 37

 

Part 3: The Pattern Catalog 53

Chapter 6: The Patterns of Agile Practice Adoption 55

Chapter 7: Goal 61

Chapter 8: Cycle 65

 

Part 3.1: Feedback Practices 69

Chapter 9: Iteration 71

Chapter 10: Kickoff Meeting 77

Chapter 11: Backlog 81

Chapter 12: Planning Poker 87

Chapter 13: Stand-Up Meeting 93

Chapter 14: Done State 99

Chapter 15: Demo 103

Chapter 16: Retrospective 109

Chapter 17: Release Often 115

Chapter 18: Co-Located Team 119

Chapter 19: Self-Organizing Team 125

Chapter 20: Cross-Functional Team 131

Chapter 21: Customer Part of Team 137

Chapter 22: Evocative Document 143

Chapter 23: User Story 149

Chapter 24: Use Case 153

Chapter 25: Information Radiator 157

 

Part 3.2: Technical Practices 161

Chapter 26: Automated Developer Tests 163

Chapter 27: Test-Last Development 173

Chapter 28: Test-First Development 177

Chapter 29: Refactoring 183

Chapter 30: Continuous Integration 189

Chapter 31: Simple Design 197

Chapter 32: Functional Tests 203

Chapter 33: Collective Code Ownership 219

Chapter 34: Pair Programming 223

 

Part 3.3: Supporting Practices 229

Chapter 35: Coach 231

Chapter 36: Engage the Community 235

Chapter 37: Reading Circle 239

Chapter 38: Workshop 245

Chapter 39: Classroom Training 249

 

Part 3.4: The Clusters 255

Chapter 40: Agile Iteration 257

Chapter 41: Communication Cluster 263

Chapter 42: Evolutionary Design 269

Chapter 43: Test-Driven Development 277

Chapter 44: Test-Driven Requirements 285

 

Part 4: Case Studies 293

Chapter 45: BabyCenter 295

Chapter 46: Company X 305

 

Part 5: Appendices 321

Appendix A: Pattern to Business Value Mappings 323

Appendix B: Pattern-to-Smell Mappings 325

Appendix C: Getting the Most from Agile Practice Patterns 327

Appendix D: Further Reading 331

 

Bibliography 333

 

Index 339

 

About the Author

Amr Elssamadisy (www.elssamadisy.com) is a software development practitioner who works with his clients to build better, more valuable software. He and his colleagues at Gemba Systems help both small and large development teams learn new technologies, adopt and adapt appropriate Agile development practices, and focus their efforts to maximize the value they bring to their organizations.

 

Amr’s technical background and experience in C/C++, Java/J2EE, and .NET allows him to appreciate the problems of development teams and offer them support.

 

At the same time, he realizes that most problems–even in software–are people problems that are not solved by tools and technology. Therefore, Amr and his colleagues at Gemba Systems focus on issues such as personal agility, team building, communication, feedback, and all the other soft skills that distinguish excellent teams.

 

Amr is also the author of Patterns of Agile Practice Adoption: The Technical Cluster. He is an editor for the AgileQ at InfoQ, a contributor to the Agile Journal, and a frequent presenter at software development conferences.

 

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Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (July 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321514521
• ISBN-13: 978-0321514523
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #437,612 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid advice. No hype!, July 30, 2008

By	Linda Rising (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are many things I like about this book, not the least of which is that it is true to the "spirit" of patterns and agile -- it does not promise easy answers or quick fixes but offers down-to-earth advice based on experience. The patterns do a good job of capturing that experience but the way the patterns are written, with "threads" of stories throughout is not only convincing but enjoyable reading. I like being able to follow the real-life adventures of the same developers who struggle to solve real problems across several patterns. I also like the case study in Chapter 46 where a real company with real problems does a pretty good job of moving forward, but it's not a "and they all lived happily ever after" scenario. We're overwhelmed with books and advice these days, so it's nice to see someone who offers help and hope but not hype!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book For Adopting Agile Practices, July 2, 2008

By	James Holmes "Co-Author 'Windows Developer Po... (South Central Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Elssamadisy's book is in tough, tough company. How can you compete in the same space as amazing works like Subramaniam and Hunt's Practices of an Agile Developer or Shore and Warden's The Art of Agile Development? Those are tough, tough classics to go against when trying to explain how teams/companies should adopt agile practices.

Amr pulls it off by organizing his material in a fresh form which I found very useful. He hits many of the same points as other works on Agile (smells, process, team empowerment, practices, etc.), but emphasizes the business value of each point. For example, his chapter on User Story lays out the case that user stories are simple documents in their initial draft. The value comes from developers having conversations to flesh out the details and implementation of the story. Product utility is improved, and development costs are reduced.

This same approach is carried on throughout the book, making it very clear what specific benefits you can find from each practice. Additionally, each practice or chapter follows a nice recipe-like format. Start off with business value, move on to a sketch describing the practice, follow up with context of the practice and forces impacting it, then look to why you'd want the particular practice, adoption details, and a bit on the practice's cons and variations.

The book starts out with a high-level overview of agile, then moves on to specific patterns/practices. Each pattern is a short, separate chapter with about 40 patterns in total. The style of the book is clear, concise, and it's nicely produced.

Another great point about the book is Elssamadisy's ongoing assertion that you don't need to adopt all of the practices. Rather, find the pain points you have in your environment and look to implement only the patterns which will ease that pain. This pragmatic approach to agile adoption is a refreshing view in a world where some Agile fanatics insist you must adopt every single practice or you're not doing Agile. (A fanaticism I emphatically disagree with.)

Overall I think it's a solid addition to the Agile section of your bookshelf. It's not a replacement for things like Subramaniam's or Shore's works; it's a solid addition to them.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and pragmatic - just what's needed, August 31, 2008

By	Steven List "Doc" (Austin, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are many books about the theories and practices that are encompassed in the word "agile". Quite a number of them are quite good in terms of addressing the specific practices and how to implement them. It you want to learn Scrum or XP, there is no shortage of books and how-to materials, along with plenty of advice.

This book, however, addresses the goal of agile adoption from a new perspective - patterns of behavior and thought, and how to specifically leverage and/or address them. It addresses this from the organizational/team perspective, rather than the individual perspective, which makes it particularly valuable for those of us who are working in an organizational transformation/agile adoption environment.

While it might seem that "patterns" would appeal to the techies in its audience, my experience is that Amr has managed to frame his work in terms and concepts that are readily understood by all. This book is readily digestible by non-technical managers and staff, as well as by those of us who have spent/currently spend our time in a technology environment. It is not necessary to understand what design patterns are, for instance, to understand the patterns in this book.

For those who are either anticipating agile adoption or actively engaged in it, or even those who are struggling with what seems to be a failed adoption, this book is required reading. The way in which the patterns are presented, the clear and pragmatic exercises described to help work through them, and the suggestions for ways to approach it all are just what's needed.

Real world, pragmatic, easy to read, and easy to digest - that's what this book is all about.

It will be on my desk and heavily thumbed in short order.