Learning Agile

Andrew Stellman, despite being raised a New Yorker, has lived in Pittsburgh twice. The first time was when he graduated from Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science, and then again when he and Jenny were starting their consulting business and writing their first project management book for O'Reilly. When he moved back to his hometown, his first job after college was as a programmer at EMI-Capitol Records--which actually made sense, since he went to LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Performing Arts to study cello and jazz bass guitar. He and Jenny first worked together at that same financial software company, where he was managing a team of programmers. He's since managed various teams of software engineers, requirements analysts, and led process improvement efforts. Andrew keeps himself busy eating an enormous amount of string cheese and Middle Eastern desserts, playing music (but video games even more), studying taiji and aikido, having a girlfriend named Lisa, and owing a pomeranian.

Jennifer Greene is an agile coach, development manager, business analyst, project manager, tester, speaker, and authority on software engineering practices and principles. She's been building software for over twenty years in many different domains including media, finance, and IT consulting. She's worked with teams of excellent developers and testers to tackle tough technical problems and focused her career on finding and fixing the habitual process issues that crop up along the way.

Chapter 1Learning Agile
What Is Agile?
Who Should Read This Book
Our Goals for This Book
Getting Agile into Your Brain by Any Means Necessary
How This Book Is Structured
Chapter 2Understanding Agile Values
A Team Lead, Architect, and Project Manager Walk into a Bar...
No Silver Bullet
Agile to the Rescue! (Right?)
A Fractured Perspective
The Agile Manifesto Helps Teams See the Purpose Behind Each Practice
Understanding the Elephant
Where to Start with a New Methodology
Chapter 3The Agile Principles
The 12 Principles of Agile Software
The Customer Is Always Right...Right?
Delivering the Project
Communicating and Working Together
Project Execution—Moving the Project Along
Constantly Improving the Project and the Team
The Agile Project: Bringing All the Principles Together
Chapter 4Scrum and Self-Organizing Teams
The Rules of Scrum
Act I: I Can Haz Scrum?
Everyone on a Scrum Team Owns the Project
Act II: Status Updates Are for Social Networks!
The Whole Team Uses the Daily Scrum
Act III: Sprinting into a Wall
Sprints, Planning, and Retrospectives
Act IV: Dog Catches Car
Chapter 5Scrum Planning and Collective Commitment
Act V: Not Quite Expecting the Unexpected
User Stories, Velocity, and Generally Accepted Scrum Practices
Act VI: Victory Lap
Scrum Values Revisited
Chapter 6XP and Embracing Change
Act I: Going into Overtime
The Primary Practices of XP
Act II: The Game Plan Changed, but We’re Still Losing
The XP Values Help the Team Change Their Mindset
An Effective Mindset Starts with the XP Values
Act III: The Momentum Shifts
Understanding the XP Principles Helps You Embrace Change
Chapter 7XP, Simplicity, and Incremental Design
Act IV: Going into Overtime, Part 2: Second Overtime
Code and Design
Make Code and Design Decisions at the Last Responsible Moment
Incremental Design and the Holistic XP Practices
Act V: Final Score
Chapter 8Lean, Eliminating Waste, and Seeing the Whole
Lean Thinking
Act I: Just One More Thing...
Creating Heroes and Magical Thinking
Eliminate Waste
Gain a Deeper Understanding of the Product
Deliver As Fast As Possible
Chapter 9Kanban, Flow, and Constantly Improving
Act II: Playing Catch-Up
The Principles of Kanban
Improving Your Process with Kanban
Measure and Manage Flow
Emergent Behavior with Kanban
Chapter 10The Agile Coach
Act III: Just One More Thing (Again?!)...
Coaches Understand Why People Don’t Always Want to Change
Coaches Understand How People Learn
Coaches Understand What Makes a Methodology Work
The Principles of Coaching