Agile Documentation: A Pattern Guide to Producing Lightweight Documents for Software Projects (Wiley Software Patterns Series) (Paperback)

~ Andreas Rueping (Author) "Before we plunge into the actual patterns, I'd like to take a brief look at the projects from which the patterns in this book were..." (more)
Key Phrases: agile documentation, agile attitude, big picture document, Project Persistor, Project Navigator, Project Vista (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

many (Test Documents) would benefit from this treatment (Professional Tester, October 03)

"...applicable to documentation for any project...highly recommended..." (CVu, Vol 16(4), August 2004)

Product Description

Documentation is the castor oil of programming. Managers think it is good for programmers, and programmers hate it! Jerry Weinberg in Psychology of Computer Programming

Andreas Rüping sugars the pill by giving sound advice on how to produce lean and lightweight software documentation. It will be welcomed by all project team members who want to cut out the fat from this time consuming task. Guidance given in pattern form, easily digested and cross-referenced, provides solutions to common problems. Straightforward advice will help you to judge:

• What details should be left in and what left out
• When communication face-to-face would be better than paper or online
• How to adapt the documentation process to the requirements of individual projects and build in change
• How to organise documents and make them easily accessible
• When to use diagrams rather than text
• How to choose the right tools and techniques
• How documentation impacts the customer

Better than offering pat answers or prescriptions, this book will help you to understand the elements and processes that can be found repeatedly in good project documentation and which can be shaped and designed to address your individual circumstance. The author uses real-world examples and utilises agile principles to provide an accessible, practical pattern-based guide which shows how to produce necessary and high quality documentation.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (September 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470856173
• ISBN-13: 978-0470856178
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #614,415 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Documentation, But not very agile, October 28, 2007

By	Kenneth Miller "Ken Miller" (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ruping did a good job of covering the topic of software documentation, albeit somewhat generically, i.e. not that specific to software development. He quotes a lot of others in his book and identifies that the goal (of agile documenting) is 'light-weight but sufficient'. If you're working on developing a system for documenting software development (or really any other technical project) this would make a good reference, but start at the back of the book. He uses patterns in his book as his technique to cover the topic. They are recognized problems and solutions, and he lists all of them in the back of the book in thumbnail form. The middle of the book provides the elaboration. The first part of the book is his professional history (sorry Ruping, but not that interesting), and his how-to-use-the-book section.
The problem I had with the book is that I didn't see anything new and innovating. I didn't have an `ah-ha' moment where I finally understood the real principles behind 'agile' documentation. I didn't find this book 'agile' at all. I also did not agree with all of his solutions, most seemed cliché. But again, if you're looking for a reference on the topic of technical documentation - this is not bad.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful book!, July 4, 2008

By	tessa - See all my reviews

This book about Agile Documentation turned out to be very useful, and is a kind of book I have been looking for. A lot of the same issues and conclusions regarding Software documentation we have discussed in our own Company are discussed in this book, and the advices from the author is very good. Written in a style that makes it easy and fast to read.
Everyone working with documentation in the software business should read this book!

2.0 out of 5 stars Left me wondering what to actually do ..., October 29, 2008

By	Joel C. Themmen "Development Guy" (San Diego) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was a bit disappointed with the book since our team has struggled with documentation. The general consensus was that this book was OK but did not really clear a whole lot things up for us.