Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams [Paperback]

Alistair Cockburn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201699478 | ISBN-13: 978-0201699470 | Publication Date: October 29, 2004 | Edition: 1

This book introduces Crystal Clear, a better lightweight methodology for building software. It describes the roles, teams, values, intentions, habits, activities, policies and work products of a small software development team for whom time-to-market and development costs are critical considerations. Alistair Cockburn is one of the founders of the Agile software development movement. He spells out proven best practices based on his extensive experience helping organizations build software quickly and with less cost. The author understands that small teams cannot be burdened by "process-heavy" software methodologies. By advocating that developers stay close together and remain in steady, good-will communication with customers and users, this book teaches the reader how to develop software that not only does what it is supposed to do, but also gets completed on time and within budget.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Carefully researched over ten years and eagerly anticipated by the agile community, Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams is a lucid and practical introduction to running a successful agile project in your organization. Each chapter illuminates a different important aspect of orchestrating agile projects.

Highlights include

Attention to the essential human and communication aspects of successful projects

Case studies, examples, principles, strategies, techniques, and guiding properties

Samples of work products from real-world projects instead of blank templates and toy problems

Top strategies used by software teams that excel in delivering quality code in a timely fashion

Detailed introduction to emerging best-practice techniques, such as Blitz Planning, Project 360º, and the essential Reflection Workshop

Question-and-answer with the author about how he arrived at these recommendations, including where they fit with CMMI, ISO, RUP, XP, and other methodologies

A detailed case study, including an ISO auditor's analysis of the project

Perhaps the most important contribution this book offers is the Seven Properties of Successful Projects. The author has studied successful agile projects and identified common traits they share. These properties lead your project to success; conversely, their absence endangers your project.

From the Back Cover

"The best thinking in the agile development community brought to street-level in the form of implementable strategy and tactics. Essential reading for anyone who shares the passion for creating quality software."

—Eric Olafson, CEO Tomax

"Crystal Clear is beyond agile. This book leads you from software process hell to successful software development by practical examples and useful samples."

—Basaki Satoshi, Schlumberger

"A very powerful message, delivered in a variety of ways to touch the motivation and understanding of many points of view."

—Laurie Williams, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University

"A broad, rich understanding of small-team software development based on observations of what actually works."

—John Rusk

"A superb synthesis of underlying principles and a clear description of strategies and techniques."

—Géry Derbier, Project Manager, Solistic

"Alistair Cockburn shows how small teams can be highly effective at developing fit-for-purpose software by following a few basic software development practices and by creating proper team dynamics. These small teams can be much more effective and predictable than much larger teams that follow overly bureaucratic and prescriptive development processes."

—Todd Little, Sr. Development Manager, Landmark Graphics

"I find Cockburn's writings on agile methods enlightening: He describes 'how to do,' of course, but also how to tell whether you're doing it right, to reach into the feeling of the project. This particular book's value is that actual project experiences leading to and confirming the principles and practices are so...well...clearly presented."

—Scott Duncan, ASQ Software Division Standards Chair and representative to the US SC7 TAG and IEEE S2ESC Executive Committee and Management Board and Chair of IEEE Working Group 1648 on agile methods

"Crystal Clear identifies principles that work not only for software development, but also for any results-centric activities. Dr. Cockburn follows these principles with concrete, practical examples of how to apply the principles to real situations and roles and to resolve real issues."

—Niel Nickolaisen, COO, Deseret Book

"All the successful projects I've been involved with or have observed over the past 19 or so years have had many of the same characteristics as described in Crystal Clear (even the big projects). And many of the failed projects failed because they missed something—such as expert end-user involvement or accessibility throughout the project. The final story was a great read. Here was a project that in my opinion was an overwhelming success—high productivity, high quality, delivery, happy customer, and the fact that the team would do it again. The differing styles in each chapter kept it interesting. I started reading it and couldn't put it down, and by the end, I just had to say 'Wow!'"

—Ron Holliday, Director, Fidelity Management Research

Carefully researched over ten years and eagerly anticipated by the agile community, Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams is a lucid and practical introduction to running a successful agile project in your organization. Each chapter illuminates a different important aspect of orchestrating agile projects.

Highlights include

• Attention to the essential human and communication aspects of successful projects
• Case studies, examples, principles, strategies, techniques, and guiding properties
• Samples of work products from real-world projects instead of blank templates and toy problems
• Top strategies used by software teams that excel in delivering quality code in a timely fashion
• Detailed introduction to emerging best-practice techniques, such as Blitz Planning, Project 360º, and the essential Reflection Workshop
• Question-and-answer with the author about how he arrived at these recommendations, including where they fit with CMMI, ISO, RUP, XP, and other methodologies
• A detailed case study, including an ISO auditor's analysis of the project

Perhaps the most important contribution this book offers is the Seven Properties of Successful Projects. The author has studied successful agile projects and identified common traits they share. These properties lead your project to success; conversely, their absence endangers your project.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (October 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201699478
• ISBN-13: 978-0201699470
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Software Engineering > Methodology

More About the Author

Alistair Cockburn is a recognized expert on use cases. He is consulting fellow at Humans and Technology, where he is responsible for helping clients succeed with object-oriented projects. He has more than 20 years of experience leading projects in hardware and software development in insurance, retail, and e-commerce companies and in large organizations such as the Central Bank of Norway and IBM.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best single book in the Agile canon, November 12, 2004

By 

Michael K. Spayd "Agile Dragon" (Boulder) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams (Paperback)

Alistair has always been an interesting thinker, one worth reading for the clarity of his thought and the insights he brings from his very open minded observation and talking with development teams. With his new book, Crystal Clear, however, Alistair has become a really good writer. In fact, I would say he has written the single best book in the collection of writings on Agile methodologies.

If you want the most comprehensive overview of Agile, you still must read Highsmith's Agile Software Development Ecosystems. If you want the most poetic, read Kent's White Book. For amazingly clear and simple writing and thinking, Poppendieck. But if you want a really really useful book on how to actually do agile, and you don't have that much time to invest, get Alistair's book.

One of the things I really like is the variety of different writing styles from chapter to chapter: from the email "love letters" written to Crystal (Alistair's methodology muse), to the simple exposition of seven properties underlying agile, to the clearly illustrated strategies and techniques, to work product samples, and to the final one page chapter giving an expert (level 3) view of the whole methodology. His writing is constantly engaging, inventive, conversational and even fun.

While Alistair writes about one methodology (and only one of his Crystal family of methodologies), the book is still universal. It covers the basic things that few agile teams would disagree with. Even if you work in a large, complex environment, this is the place to start.

-May your travels be light and the green bar always on your forward horizon. --Michael

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A realistic agile methodology..., January 2, 2006

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams (Paperback)

While I like the general concepts behind agile development methodologies, sometimes they seem to be focused on speed with a disregard for any documentation. Alistair Cockburn has an agile methodology that appears more palatable in today's environments... Crystal Clear : A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams.

Contents: Explained (View from the Outside); Applied (The Seven Properties); In Practice (Strategies and Techniques); Explored (The Process); Examined (The Work Products); Misunderstood (Common Mistakes); Questioned (Frequently Asked); Tested (A Case Study); Distilled (The Short Version); References; Index

The tendency to want to compare Crystal Clear (CC) to XP is something that can't be ignored. In fact, Cockburn addresses this in the Questioned section. He sums it up by saying that XP is stricter in several ways and more loose in a few. XP wants shorter iterations, CC can be longer. XP calls for pair programming, CC permits it. XP requires a customer to be an active member of the team, CC wants easy access to one. XP requires no documentation, CC does. It's probably that last point that makes CC an easier sell in a business environment. Some methodologies are documentation-heavy (like RUP) and some are documentation-absent (like XP). CC strikes a balance between documenting what needs to be known and remembered by the group, without having multiple binders of paper as a "product" to explain every last iota of code. While XP is the methodology that has all the mindshare these days, I think I feel more comfortable as a developer using something like CC.

If you're looking to slim down your development methodology or add some structure to a seemingly ad-hoc XP methodology, this book might be what you're looking for...

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it, no matter what methodology you're using, November 5, 2004

By 

Lisa Crispin (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams (Paperback)

It was through Alistair Cockburn's earlier writings that I 'got it' that good people, not methodologies and tools, deliver successful projects. Although Crystal Clear is meant only for small teams (there's a Crystal color for every size team), the properties, practices, principles, examples and techniques in this book would benefit any software development team.

The subtitle begins "A Human-Powered Methodology...", and that's the key to this book. Cockburn understands how to allow people to do their best work. The book is so well-organized and well-written, even readers new to agile development will have no trouble understanding how and why Crystal Clear works, and how to implement it.

I'm part of a Scrum/XP team, but I took away many helpful and practical ideas from this book. No matter what methodology you use - even if you work in a traditional waterfall environment - you will find much you can use here.