Extreme Programming for Web Projects [Paperback]

Doug Wallace (Author), Isobel Raggett (Author), Joel Aufgang (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201794276 | ISBN-13: 978-0201794274 | Publication Date: September 29, 2002 | Edition: 1

Make no mistake, web development is not software development; they are very different disciplines. However, web developers and software developers face many of the same challenges. Teams must be assembled, solutions must be built, testing and quality assurance must be conducted, and ultimately projects must be delivered as promised: on time and within budget. The web industry grew up so quickly that process was never sufficiently addressed nor formalized, and the authors of this book believe that web teams can learn a lot from the success that software teams have experienced with Extreme Programming (XP). The book presents a hybrid that adopts such XP cornerstones as pair programming and continuous integration, and adapts them to many of the unique requirements of web projects (e.g. graphical design process, multi-discipline teams, etc.). The result is a proven means of better delivering software to the browser.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Web development teams have been operating in the dark for far too long. The lack of proven development methodologies for the Web environment has resulted in a constant struggle for developers to produce quality Web-based projects on time and within budget. The field is multidisciplinary in character, involving both technology and graphic design: Web-based project development must address the issue of company image, must function on multiple platforms, and must incorporate multiple media into one complete package.

Extreme Programming for Web Projects shows how the Extreme Programming (XP) software development discipline can be adapted and applied to the Web-based project development process. This book demonstrates how the hallmarks of XP--continuous integration, short iterations, paired programming, automated testing, and extensive client involvement--are particularly well suited to the unique demands of Web-based development. Based on years of real-world experience, the book offers proven best practices that enable developers to deal efficiently and effectively with the challenges they face and, ultimately, to produce Web-based projects that meet and/or exceed customer expectations.

Readers will find information on vital topics such as:

• How the XP team approach enhances communication between Web technology and graphic design professionals
• How XP automated testing ensures a comprehensive approach to testing page layout, performance, and multiplatform operation
• How XP's continuous integration and short iterations serve the Web development team's need for flexibility
• How XP's emphasis on client involvement throughout the project improves oftentimes adversarial client relationships
• How XP can facilitate the difficult task of estimating the time and cost of project completion
• How XP functionality "stories" can be adapted for Web-based presentation stories
• How XML, XSLT, and Cascading Style Sheets can help sites remain flexible and maintainable
• How to use these guidelines for outstanding Web site design and coding techniques

As the Web industry continues to mature, there is a great need for methodologies that will ensure project quality as well as efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The fast-paced and flexible Extreme Programming methodology offers an excellent starting point for Web developers to improve their working processes and employ best practices.

0201794276B08282002

About the Author

Doug Wallace is the founder and president of Agile.Net, a consulting company that designs and develops Web sites and e-business applications using Extreme Programming and other Agile methodologies. Previously, he was manager of New Media at Passport Online and director of New Business Development and Strategy for Infinet Communications. He writes on e-business for Marketing Magazine and is a frequent guest expert on Canada's Cable Pulse 24 Money Morning television program.

Joel Aufgang is CTO for Agile.Net and an early adaptor and pioneer of XML and C# in the production of complex Web sites and systems. Prior to joining Agile.Net, he worked on many Web and software projects in both Canada and internationally and cofounded Monkeys and Typewriters, an XML and Web development consulting firm.

Isobel Raggett has been involved in Web site design and development since the beginning of the industry, and has been at the forefront of adapting lightweight methodologies to Web site development. She has worked on many Web projects, as general manager of Agile.Net and production manager for Passport Online, as well as developed her own popular fashion site.

0201794276AB08282002

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (September 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201794276
• ISBN-13: 978-0201794274
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,211,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Learn the new ways of web site development., December 1, 2002

By 

Maxim Masiutin (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Extreme Programming for Web Projects (Paperback)

This book is for both professional web-site development companies and for the customers who would like to order web-site development from a contractor. The book offers new way of developing web projects. The mode of operation is based on the famous methodology called "Extreme Programming" (XP). Until publication of this book, all of the non-compilation books on XP have come from those who were involved in its birth. This publication is the first title from the "second generation" of XP practitioners.

This book is self-essential. However, if you would like to know more about economic and spiritual aspects of XP, digest the "Extreme Programming Explained" by Kent Beck. Another valuable resource is "Testing Extreme Programming" by Lisa Crispin & Tip House. It exhibits valuable web testing strategies.

While the authors mostly rely on XP manifesto, they have adjusted the methodology to best fit their own needs. For example, they offer so-called zero-iteration, which sets up the framework, but have no business value to the customer. The parents of XP discourage this approach in "Extreme Programming Installed" by Ron Jeffries, Ann Anderson and Chet Hendrickson. Who are right? You decide.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Biting off more than they can chew, June 30, 2003

By 

Howard S. Epstein (Aurora, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extreme Programming for Web Projects (Paperback)

To get straight to the point, I was disappointed with this book. The book opens with great promise on how XP is going to change our world and revolutionize programming projects for the web. However, Wallace, Raggett, and Aufgang end up trying to bite off more than they could chew in a 150-page book.

First, the authors assume you already know a great deal about extreme programming, which I did not prior to picking up this book. To their credit, they do refer you to Kent Beck's Extreme Programming Explored, recommending you to peruse it before reading their book. Unfortunately, this reference occurs in the Preface, and could easily be missed by readers who go straight to Chapter 1. Without this background, it's not hard to get lost - for example, the authors refer to CRC's without explaining what the acronym is or what it means - I had to check the index; indeed, CRC's are discussed (albeit briefly) much later in the book.

Not to say that there aren't positives - I enjoyed Part II, the discussion of how to integrate XP practices into a development shop. But, the authors just do not go into enough detail, and leave me wanting more. You feel that this book could have either been a 20-page paper or a 500-page book, but not something in between. A 20-page paper would have simply highlighted the differences between XP development for non-web projects versus web projects. A 500-page book would have gone into detail on a number of concepts discussed in this book. But, this slimmer volume goes in between these two choices, and ends up not really doing an adequate job of either highlighting the differences or going into a good amount of detail about XP practices.

Part III, a discussion of XML, was an awkward insertion into the text. The book goes from general management discussion to highly technical without warning, and you ask yourself within a few pages, "What the heck just happened here?" One minute they're talking about the importance of comfy chairs, and the next they're discussing recursive nested structures. It left my head spinning, and I'm not a technical wallflower. It almost seems like the authors had a 120-page book, thought it was too slim, and had to stuff an extra 30 pages in somehow.

This book whetted my appetite, and I'm now interested in learning more. Maybe I'll take the authors' advice and read Kent Beck's book to get the detailed information I'm looking for, but did not get from Extreme Programming for Web Projects.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good reading for new XP web teams... could be better, May 11, 2003

By 

Adam Sroka (Marina Del Rey, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extreme Programming for Web Projects (Paperback)

I didn't get a lot out of the first half of this book. Part one tries to look at the basic principles and practices of XP from the perspective of a web team. Some of the material was a rehash of that found in other, better XP books such as the original, Extreme Programming Explained, by Kent Beck, or Extreme Programming Installed. The material that was new was not all that informative and I found that I disagreed with some of it.

Part two had some painful parts as well, but the whole thing started to turn around for me in chapter 8 which discusses the graphic design process from the perspective of XP core values. This chapter is excellent and worth the price of the book, although I wish it was longer. I gladly would have bought an entire book which the same premise as chapter 8. It would have been nice to see a more explicit breakdown of XP core values as they relate to the graphic design process.

Part three of the book discusses XML and XSLT as an alternative to classic web page architecture that allows for greater seperation of concerns and thus facilitates test-driven development. This is all well and good, but there are other good books on the subject, and there are an awful lot of alternatives approaches available (As a J2EE developer Apache Struts and Apache Cocoon both come to mind.) This section also could have been expanded into an entire book twice the size of this one which talked more explicitly about core XP values and practices and how XML/XSLT facilitated them. It would also be nice to see a comparison of one or more alternatives such as Apache Struts and/or .NET.

The fourth and final section of the book discusses XP practices and how these can be adjusted to a web project. Again, I didn't get an awful lot out of this. It was not clear that the deviation from standard XP practice was necessarily an improvement or that it was caused by the inherent nature of web projects so much as the inexperience of the development team relative to XP.