The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software (Pragmatic Programmers) [Paperback]

Jonathan Rasmusson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2010 | Series: Pragmatic Programmers

Faced with a software project of epic proportions? Tired of over-committing and under-delivering? Enter the dojo of the agile samurai, where agile expert Jonathan Rasmusson shows you how to kick-start, execute, and deliver your agile projects. Combining cutting-edge tools with classic agile practices, The Agile Samurai gives you everything you need to deliver something of value every week and make rolling your software into production a non-event.

Get ready to kick some software project butt. By learning the ways of the agile samurai you will discover:

how to create plans and schedules your customer and your team can believe in

what characteristics make a good agile team and how to form your own

how to gather requirements in a fraction of the time using agile user stories

what to do when you discover your schedule is wrong, and how to look like a pro correcting it

* how to execute fiercely by leveraging the power of agile software engineering practices

By the end of this book you will know everything you need to set up, execute, and successfully deliver agile projects, and have fun along the way. If you're a project lead, this book gives you the tools to set up and lead your agile project from start to finish. If you are an analyst, programmer, tester, usability designer, or project manager, this book gives you the insight and foundation necessary to become a valuable agile team member.

The Agile Samurai slices away the fluff and theory that make other books less-than-agile. It's packed with best practices, war stories, plenty of humor and hands-on tutorial exercises that will get you doing the right things, the right way.

This book will make a difference.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

As an experienced entrepreneur and former agile coach for ThoughtWorks, Jonathan Rasmusson has consulted internationally, helping others find better ways to work and play together. When not coaching his sons' hockey teams or cycling to work in the throes of a Canadian winter, Jonathan can be found sharing his experiences with agile delivery methods at his blog, http://agilewarrior.wordpress.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf; 1 edition (October 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934356581
• ISBN-13: 978-1934356586
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Testing
  • #43 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Management > Project Management > PMP Exam

More About the Author

As someone who refuses to be defined by a simple title or role, Jonathan would describe himself as a developer with an intense interest in everything.

As a former agile coach at ThoughtWorks, Jonathan used to travel extensively introducing teams to agile software delivery. He has since settled down in Calgary Canada and now coaches his son's hockey team.

When not riding his bike in the throws of a Canadian winter, or prototyping his latest startup idea, you can find him sharing his insights and opinions on software delivery at agilewarrior.wordpress.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Humor and How to do Agile December 2, 2010

By Johanna Rothman

Format:Paperback

I knew I was going to like The Agile Samurai from the first page:

"Agile is a way of developing software that reminds us that although computers run the code, it's people who create and maintain it."

Jonathan Rasmussen, the Other JR, has written a great, short, to-the-point book about how to move a project to agile. From the beginning "Deliver something of value every week" to the Agile Principles sprinkled throughout the book, such as "The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams" to the conversations between the student and the Sensei, you can learn how to move your project from where it is to agile.

Some pieces I particularly like are:

1. All of Chapter 4, Seeing the Big Picture, where Jonathan suggests we need an elevator pitch for our project. I'm stealing this idea right away.
2. Chapter 8: Agile Planning, Dealing with Reality. After a humorous side trip with Murphy and his Law, Jonathan introduces us to burndown, burnup, and team velocity charts.
3. Chapter 15: Continuous Integration: Making it Production-Ready. What if you only had one hour to deploy your product. Could you? Jonathan walks you through what you need to do to make the code production ready.

Jonathan has great advice about how to know how agile you are:

"And don't forget. It's not about "being" agile. It's about building great products and delivering world class service to your customers."

This is a great book. If you are thinking of starting an agile journey, do yourself a favor and get this book. You will not be sorry.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Starter course for agile managers July 25, 2011

By Thomas Knierim

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Over the last ten years, I've been working with teams with different degrees of commitment to the agile process, ranging from non-existing to quite strong. I was looking for a text that summarises agile methodology to help me formalise and articulate my own experiences, and of course to enhance my knowledge of some of the finer points of agile practices. I have to admit that this book did not meet my expectations. The first eighty pages up to chapter six are mostly about project inception and read like a prolonged introduction. From chapter six onwards, the author finally comes to the point and discusses the core concepts of agile processes, so the book does get better with increasing page numbers. Unfortunately, Scrum isn't discussed at all, instead Kanban is introduced in chapter eight. The discussion of typical technical processes, such as refactoring, TDD, and continuous integration is compacted into several brief chapters at the end of the book.

The writing style is very informal; the author uses a conversational tone throughout the book. Almost every page contains illustrations, which makes it an easy and quick read. The style of the book is comparable to the Head First books. It left me with the the impression that I sat in an all-day meeting where someone said a lot of intelligent things to which everyone else agreed. Unfortunately, not many of these things seemed radically new or thought-provoking, so I fear I won't remember many of them next month. Of course, this may be entirely my own fault. I prefer a more formal, concise, old-school language. I also prefer dense and meaty text books with lots of diagrams, numbers and formulas. In return, I can dispense with stick figures, pictograms, and even with Master Sensei (a guru character used in the book). I feel that a lot of the deeper and more complex issues of agile project management have simply been left out.

To be fair, it must be mentioned that I probably do not fall into the target group for which this book was written. It is more appropriate as an introductory text for people who are new to agile project management, or even new to the entire business of project management. Think "trial lesson" and "starter course".

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Agile in the wild October 19, 2010

By Sean Feldman

Format:Paperback

What this book isn't: boring theory about agile methodology and history of "how did it all start". This book is neither source of THE secret of agile software development.

What this book is: a great and valuable source of reality connected simple facts that would allow you to re-evaluate how you build your software. Inception Deck is a great tool to kick off a project. Project planning and execution from agile point of view and with developers in mind are chapters that logically explain how to address everyday issues on traditional projects. This book is about achieving targets by going with simplicity.