Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change / Edition 2

Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change / Edition 2

ISBN-10:
0321278658
ISBN-13:
9780321278654
Pub. Date:
11/16/2004
Publisher:
Pearson Education
ISBN-10:
0321278658
ISBN-13:
9780321278654
Pub. Date:
11/16/2004
Publisher:
Pearson Education
Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change / Edition 2

Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change / Edition 2

$44.99 Current price is , Original price is $44.99. You
$44.99 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores
  • SHIP THIS ITEM

    Temporarily Out of Stock Online

    Please check back later for updated availability.


Overview

“In this second edition of Extreme Programming Explained, Kent Beck organizes and presents five years’ worth of experiences, growth, and change revolving around XP. If you are seriously interested in understanding how you and your team can start down the path of improvement with XP, you must read this book.”

Francesco Cirillo, Chief Executive Officer, XPLabs S.R.L. “The first edition of this book told us what XP was—it changed the way many of us think about software development. This second edition takes it farther and gives us a lot more of the ‘why’ of XP, the motivations and the principles behind the practices. This is great stuff. Armed with the ‘what’ and the ‘why,’ we can now all set out to confidently work on the ‘how’: how to run our projects better, and how to get agile techniques adopted in our organizations.”

Dave Thomas, The Pragmatic Programmers LLC “This book is dynamite! It was revolutionary when it first appeared a few years ago, and this new edition is equally profound. For those who insist on cookbook checklists, there’s an excellent chapter on ‘primary practices,’ but I urge you to begin by truly contemplating the meaning of the opening sentence in the first chapter of Kent Beck’s book: ‘XP is about social change.’ You should do whatever it takes to ensure that every IT professional and every IT manager—all the way up to the CIO—has a copy of Extreme Programming Explained on his or her desk.”

Ed Yourdon, author and consultant “XP is a powerful set of concepts for simplifying the process of software design, development, and testing. It is about minimalism and incrementalism, which are especially useful principles when tackling complex problems that require a balance of creativity and discipline.”

Michael A. Cusumano, Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management, and author of The Business of SoftwareExtreme Programming Explained is the work of a talented and passionate craftsman. Kent Beck has brought together a compelling collection of ideas about programming and management that deserves your full attention. My only beef is that our profession has gotten to a point where such common-sense ideas are labeled ‘extreme.’...”

Lou Mazzucchelli, Fellow, Cutter Business Technology Council “If your organization is ready for a change in the way it develops software, there’s the slow incremental approach, fixing things one by one, or the fast track, jumping feet first into Extreme Programming. Do not be frightened by the name, it is not that extreme at all. It is mostly good old recipes and common sense, nicely integrated together, getting rid of all the fat that has accumulated over the years.”

Philippe Kruchten, UBC, Vancouver, British Columbia “Sometimes revolutionaries get left behind as the movement they started takes on a life of its own. In this book, Kent Beck shows that he remains ahead of the curve, leading XP to its next level. Incorporating five years of feedback, this book takes a fresh look at what it takes to develop better software in less time and for less money. There are no silver bullets here, just a set of practical principles that, when used wisely, can lead to dramatic improvements in software development productivity.”

Mary Poppendieck, author of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit “Kent Beck has revised his classic book based on five more years of applying and teaching XP. He shows how the path to XP is both

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780321278654
Publisher: Pearson Education
Publication date: 11/16/2004
Series: XP Series
Edition description: REV
Pages: 224
Sales rank: 1,020,728
Product dimensions: 7.35(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Kent Beck consistently challenges software engineering dogma, promoting ideas like patterns, test-driven development, and Extreme Programming. Currently affiliated with Three Rivers Institute and Agitar Software, he is the author of many Addison-Wesley titles.

Cynthia Andres holds a B.S. in psychology with advanced work in organizational behavior, decision analysis, and women’s studies. She has worked with Kent on the social aspects of Extreme Programming since its inception. She is also affiliated with Three Rivers Institute.



0

Read an Excerpt

The goal of Extreme Programming (XP) is outstanding software development. Software can be developed at lower cost, with fewer defects, with higher productivity, and with much higher return on investment. The same teams that are struggling today can achieve these results by careful attention to and refinement of how they work, by pushing ordinary development practices to the extreme.

There are better ways and worse ways to develop software. Good teams are more alike than they are different. No matter how good or bad your team you can always improve. I intend this book as a resource for you as you try to improve.

This book is my personal take on what it is that good software development teams have in common. I’ve taken things I’ve done that have worked well and things I’ve seen done that worked well and distilled them to what I think is their purest, most “extreme” form. What I’m most struck with in this process is the limitations of my own imagination in this effort. Practices that seemed impossibly extreme five years ago, when the first edition of this book was published, are now common. Five years from now the practices in this book will probably seem conservative.

If I only talked about what good teams do I would be missing the point. There are legitimate differences between outstanding teams’ actions based on the context in which they work. Looking below the surface, where their activities become ripples in the river hinting at shapes below, there is an intellectual and intuitive substrate to software development excellence that I have also tried to distill and document.

Critics of the first edition have complained that it tries to force them to program in a certain way. Aside from the absurdity of me being able to control anyone else’s behavior, I’m embarrassed to say that was my intention. Relinquishing the illusion of control of other people’s behavior and acknowledging each individual’s responsibility for his or her own choices, in this edition I have tried to rephrase my message in a positive, inclusive way. I present proven practices you can add to your bag of tricks.

  • No matter the circumstance you can always improve.
  • You can always start improving with yourself.
  • You can always start improving today.

Table of Contents

  • I. EXPLORING XP.
  • 2. Learning to Drive.
  • 3. Values, Principles, and Practices.
  • 4. Values.
  • 5. Principles.
  • 6. Practices.
  • 7. Primary Practices.
  • 8. Getting Started.
  • 9. Corollary Practices.
  • 10. The Whole XP Team.
  • 11. The Theory of Constraints.
  • 12. Planning: Managing Scope.
  • 13. Testing: Early, Often, and Automated.
  • 14. Designing: The Value of Time.
  • 15. Scaling XP.
  • 16. Interview.
  • 17. Creation Story.
  • 18. Taylorism and Software.
  • 19. Toyota Production System.
  • 20. Applying XP.
  • 21. Purity
  • 22. Offshore Development.
  • 23. The Timeless Way of Programming.
  • 24. Community and XP.
  • 25. Conclusion.
  • Annotated Bibliography.
  • Index.

Preface

The goal of Extreme Programming (XP) is outstanding software development. Software can be developed at lower cost, with fewer defects, with higher productivity, and with much higher return on investment. The same teams that are struggling today can achieve these results by careful attention to and refinement of how they work, by pushing ordinary development practices to the extreme.

There are better ways and worse ways to develop software. Good teams are more alike than they are different. No matter how good or bad your team you can always improve. I intend this book as a resource for you as you try to improve.

This book is my personal take on what it is that good software development teams have in common. I’ve taken things I’ve done that have worked well and things I’ve seen done that worked well and distilled them to what I think is their purest, most “extreme” form. What I’m most struck with in this process is the limitations of my own imagination in this effort. Practices that seemed impossibly extreme five years ago, when the first edition of this book was published, are now common. Five years from now the practices in this book will probably seem conservative.

If I only talked about what good teams do I would be missing the point. There are legitimate differences between outstanding teams’ actions based on the context in which they work. Looking below the surface, where their activities become ripples in the river hinting at shapes below, there is an intellectual and intuitive substrate to software development excellence that I have also tried to distill and document.

Critics of the first edition have complained that it tries to force them to program in a certain way. Aside from the absurdity of me being able to control anyone else’s behavior, I’m embarrassed to say that was my intention. Relinquishing the illusion of control of other people’s behavior and acknowledging each individual’s responsibility for his or her own choices, in this edition I have tried to rephrase my message in a positive, inclusive way. I present proven practices you can add to your bag of tricks.

  • No matter the circumstance you can always improve.
  • You can always start improving with yourself.
  • You can always start improving today.
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews