Agile Technical Practices Distilled?

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Mark Levison

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May 14, 2019, 10:37:03 AM5/14/19
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Friends - I've got a few people at a client who're struggling with technical practices. In at least one case right back to the why of refactoring. The person in question remarked yesterday that he would prefer to just plan things up front. Set aside my feeling of tears. The person is open to reading and digging, I made it clear that I couldn't imagine the value of forcing things on him (or anyone).

He asked for a book that would help him see the breadth of the whole. Recently I came across this book: https://leanpub.com/agiletechnicalpracticesdistilled - the table of contents seem perfect. However, I can't find reviews and don't know the authors. (Yes I could buy it myself, there is a limit to the amount of bandwidth I have for digesting books).

Have you seen this book? 

If not do you have other recommendations? (Not Uncle Bob - for various reasons, I've turned my back on him)

Thanks for your help
Mark

Mike Rizzi

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May 14, 2019, 12:52:26 PM5/14/19
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Two books come to mind:
Refactoring by Martin Fowler
Working Effectively With Legacy Code by Michael Feathers.

No experience with the leanpub book.

mike rizzi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel.
 Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is
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 nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run
 about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the
 radio.  -- Hunter S. Thompson


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Jeff Hoover

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May 14, 2019, 12:57:57 PM5/14/19
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In "The Journey to Enterprise Agility"*, there is a chapter titled: "Flipping the Run/Build Ratio: The Business Case for Software Craftsmanship". It covers the "what" and "why" (not the "how") of technical practices. 

Disclosure - The authors, Daryl and Hong, and I are all from Pillar.

Jon Kern

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May 14, 2019, 12:58:15 PM5/14/19
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I like Ron Jeffries’ book for a good, holistic approach to s/w dev: 

The Nature of Software Development

And no, I have not heard of the book you mention.

Mark Levison

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May 14, 2019, 12:58:45 PM5/14/19
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On Tue, May 14, 2019 at 12:52 PM Mike Rizzi <mike...@gmail.com> wrote:
Two books come to mind:
Refactoring by Martin Fowler
Working Effectively With Legacy Code by Michael Feathers.

In that line also Beyond Legacy Code - David B.

I already recommended Refactoring (2nd edition). WEWLC and BeyondLegacy are both great books however you need a base before they're digestible.

Cheers
Mark

Mike Rizzi

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May 14, 2019, 1:05:16 PM5/14/19
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Agreed Jon, The Nature of Software Development is a lovely book...and a quick read to boot!

mike

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel.
 Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is
 fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some
 nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run
 about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the
 radio.  -- Hunter S. Thompson

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Mike Rizzi

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May 14, 2019, 1:07:39 PM5/14/19
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Hi Mark,

I can see your point with the Feathers book, however, for me reading Refactoring was the gateway drug...the Aha moment, where I was like "ohhhh, so that is what good quality code looks like"...the whole section describing Code Smells was the clouds parting, light streaming in moment for me.  :)

mike

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel.
 Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is
 fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some
 nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run
 about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the
 radio.  -- Hunter S. Thompson

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Andreas Leidig

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May 14, 2019, 3:54:17 PM5/14/19
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Another great book for your client may be: Growing object-oriented systems guided by tests. 

For many developers it has been an eye-opener. Refactoring there is introduced as a natural way of growing a system. If you like to introduce the London school of testing it is a must. 

Cheers
Andreas 

Markus Gaertner

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May 14, 2019, 4:38:58 PM5/14/19
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I also recommend

Beyond Legacy Code: Nine Practices to Extend the Life (and Value) of Your Software by David Scott Bernstein.

BestMarkus


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Wouter Lagerweij

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May 14, 2019, 5:43:54 PM5/14/19
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Hi Mark,

James Shore's "The Art Of Agile Development" might be a good starting point. And you can read most of it online to get a feel: https://www.jamesshore.com/Agile-Book/refactoring.html / http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596527679.do

Wouter

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Andrew Webster

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May 14, 2019, 6:47:44 PM5/14/19
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Also Jim Shore's "Let's Play TDD" video series - Google it, you'll find it.  The very first video (of dozens!) gave me my TDD aha moment.

Also +1 for all books mentioned to date, for exactly the reasons given, and now I have to go get the LeanPub one.  There's always at least one thing to learn in any one book.

Andrew Webster

Skype :: andrewmwebster


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Jason Yip

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May 14, 2019, 7:18:40 PM5/14/19
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+1 on both of these.

Understanding the Four Rules of Simple Design by Corey Haines also worth considering. https://leanpub.com/4rulesofsimpledesign

On Tuesday, 14 May 2019 12:52:26 UTC-4, Mike Rizzi wrote:
Two books come to mind:
Refactoring by Martin Fowler
Working Effectively With Legacy Code by Michael Feathers.

No experience with the leanpub book.

mike rizzi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel.
 Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is
 fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some
 nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run
 about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the
 radio.  -- Hunter S. Thompson


On Tue, May 14, 2019 at 7:37 AM Mark Levison <ma...@agilepainrelief.com> wrote:
Friends - I've got a few people at a client who're struggling with technical practices. In at least one case right back to the why of refactoring. The person in question remarked yesterday that he would prefer to just plan things up front. Set aside my feeling of tears. The person is open to reading and digging, I made it clear that I couldn't imagine the value of forcing things on him (or anyone).

He asked for a book that would help him see the breadth of the whole. Recently I came across this book: https://leanpub.com/agiletechnicalpracticesdistilled - the table of contents seem perfect. However, I can't find reviews and don't know the authors. (Yes I could buy it myself, there is a limit to the amount of bandwidth I have for digesting books).

Have you seen this book? 

If not do you have other recommendations? (Not Uncle Bob - for various reasons, I've turned my back on him)

Thanks for your help
Mark

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Mark Levison

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May 15, 2019, 8:51:40 PM5/15/19
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Notes summarizing from many people. Thanks to old friends and new (Mike, Jeff, Jon, Andreas, Wouter, Markus, and Andrew) - I really do appreciate the community I'm lucky to be part of.  

- Refactoring - Fowler - should have mentioned I had already recommended it (my omission)
- Legacy Code - Feathers - Fairly meaty for the neophyte 
- Beyond Legacy Code - Bernstein - I recommend it already on a regular basis, hadn't considered in this. Will do so now.
- Journey to Enterprise Agility - looks very interesting. Price tag? Wow. $90 Canadian? Hope they're getting great royalties. Even by my standards that's a noticeable amount of what I spend on books in year.
- Nature of Software Development - Ron - Damn good reminder
- The Art Of Agile Development - Shore and Let's Play TDD - two from one author. Nice play.
- Growing Object Oriented Software - Freeman and Pryce - London school of tests and my correspondent already struggles with refactoring. I will add to the list because I do like it, just further down. (Also not cheap $$$)
- Emergent Design - Bain - another good reminder.

Along the way I spent some $ and time on https://leanpub.com/agiletechnicalpracticesdi.stilled - I've skimmed a few chapters. Its a good starting point taking someone new through the technical practices.

Thanks to all. Time to make notes for my client. (Irony I'm doing this instead of running the technical workshop the asked for).

Cheers
Mark
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Chet Hendrickson

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May 16, 2019, 10:20:38 AM5/16/19
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I generally like James Shore’s book The Art of Agile Development

On May 14, 2019, at 10:36 AM, Mark Levison <ma...@agilepainrelief.com> wrote:

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Jon Kern

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Jun 5, 2019, 12:55:18 PM6/5/19
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This crossed my email…. I know nothing more than what is below:

On Jun 4, 2019, at 12:16 AM, Shashi Singh <ssi...@agilen2n.com> wrote:

Hi Jon - 
 
We are looking for an Agile Coach for Philadelphia with below needs for a year long project. Let me know if you know someone.
  • 7+ years of rich experience in driving agile methodologies in enterprise environments
  • Adept in defining metrics and standards
  • Proficient in using VSTS work items and developing KANBAN boards
  • Facilitating with various stake holders across different groups
  • Agile or SAFe certification is mandatory
 
Best Regards -
 
Shashi Singh, EMBA, CSM, CSP, ACP, PMP,SAFe SPC4
Direct: 630.926.6778 | Email: ssi...@agilen2n.com
1755 Park Road, Suite # 200, Naperville IL 60563

Dave Rooney

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Jun 5, 2019, 1:53:17 PM6/5/19
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> Agile or SAFe certification is mandatory

🤮

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Jon Kern

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Jun 5, 2019, 3:10:54 PM6/5/19
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I got some Agile certificate from Ron and Chet a while back. But nothing else. Oh, and a UML certification.

Mark Levison

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Jun 5, 2019, 3:28:12 PM6/5/19
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Dave and Jon - I've known you both long enough to certify you in some way

Jon - I certify that you helped start this whole Agile thing.
Dave - I certify that you're technically one of the most skilled coaches I know.

Consider yourselves Agile certified.

Cheers
Mark

Mark Levison

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Jun 5, 2019, 3:43:06 PM6/5/19
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Jon - I offer a bonus. Without your efforts in the early days Dean wouldn't have been able to create unSAFe.

Cheers
Mark

james

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Jun 5, 2019, 4:32:00 PM6/5/19
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Did you get your agile manifesto author certificate? 

Would that work?

On Jun 5, 2019 at 2:10 PM, <Jon Kern> wrote:

I got some Agile certificate from Ron and Chet a while back. But nothing else. Oh, and a UML certification.
On Jun 5, 2019, at 1:53 PM, Dave Rooney <davero...@gmail.com> wrote:


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Chet Hendrickson

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Jun 6, 2019, 5:02:48 AM6/6/19
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I believe that first one is the gold standard.

Pierre Neis

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Jun 6, 2019, 5:06:47 AM6/6/19
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I like the sentence “agile or SAFe” this usually means SAFe doesn’t work can you please come and make it work…

The right demand might be “here are our problems. Are you able to solve it?”.



James Grenning

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Jun 6, 2019, 9:22:12 AM6/6/19
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Mark,

There are lot's of good book recommendations. I'd add something people on this list know: people usually do not get convinced by reading, they get convinced by doing.

Cheers, James

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Adrian Howard

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Jun 6, 2019, 11:54:30 AM6/6/19
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> On 5 Jun 2019, at 20:10, Jon Kern <jonk...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I got some Agile certificate from Ron and Chet a while back. But nothing else. Oh, and a UML certification.

CSSTWP.com is always available for your certification needs :-)

A

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Nigel Thorne

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Jun 7, 2019, 4:53:58 PM6/7/19
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All great suggestions.

If you want a primer on 'what does good code look like' a surprising gem is "https://www.manning.com/books/the-mikado-method" . 
The book is supposed to be teaching a method for making large changes to a software system. In itself nothing ground breaking... but the book needed to cover 'what does better look like' so they do a surprisingly good summary of code smells you should avoid and what makes good design. That half of the book is really useful to give people as a primer. 

Nigel
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Jeff Langr

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Jun 7, 2019, 6:18:49 PM6/7/19
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+1 on that. A great technique to have in your toolkit, and the extra material in the book is worth spreading. (If I'm not mistaken--I could have sworn there was even more such "bonus material" in the book before it got formally published... Or am I mistaken?)

Jeff

Nigel Thorne wrote on 6/5/19 3:37 AM:

Ted M. Young [@jitterted]

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Jun 8, 2019, 10:38:45 PM6/8/19
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Regarding prices:

- Journey to Enterprise Agility - looks very interesting. Price tag? Wow. $90 Canadian? Hope they're getting great royalties. Even by my standards that's a noticeable amount of what I spend on books in year.

Granted it's a Springer book (so C$90 is cheap)...

- Growing Object Oriented Software - Freeman and Pryce - London school of tests and my correspondent already struggles with refactoring. I will add to the list because I do like it, just further down. (Also not cheap $$$)

GOOS is considered not cheap at C$58? The other books are C$40-50, so I'm curious as to what's considered not-"not cheap"?

I'm an author/instructional designer, so I'm certainly biased, but I'm dismayed at how the overwhelming amount of free information has caused developers to spend lots of time wading through the web, instead of spending a bit of money (and a lot less time) on an organized collection of information, aka, books. I'd still rather read through a cohesive book than a disparate set of blog essays, even though the latter costs less (in terms of dollars).

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Mark Levison

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Jun 9, 2019, 9:13:02 PM6/9/19
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Ted - quick note on a Sunday night.

Perspective - Technical work is no longer at my core, so spending close to $100 on a book that I will likely get limited personal value of isn't a good tradeoff.

Even in areas of interest - Science of Human Behaviour and Org Change - $100 had better be a gold mine. Its between 1/10 and 1/20 of what I spend on books most years.

Cheers
Mark

mheusser

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Jun 9, 2019, 10:44:29 PM6/9/19
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Ted Young, who I finally met at A&B, just wrote: 

"I'm an author/instructional designer, so I'm certainly biased, but I'm dismayed at how the overwhelming amount of free information has caused developers to spend lots of time wading through the web, instead of spending a bit of money (and a lot less time) on an organized collection of information, aka, books."

Dunno. The books on the new cool stuff (kubernetes, istio, ehtherium, ML, etc) are typically out of date before they are even printed. The libraries they use and the sample code involved often won't even compile anymore due to dependency and version of open source tool madness.

But goolging stack overflow for answers instead of, like, actually learning a programming language or bothering to get the xUnit patterns book etc? I think we can agree that's silly.

--heusser

Gerard Meszaros

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Jun 10, 2019, 12:38:30 AM6/10/19
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Thanks for the plug, Matt!

Gerard

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Mark Levison

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Jun 10, 2019, 8:11:42 AM6/10/19
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Ted irony, when you asked for thoughts on trends, you asked someone old enough that he's not part of most trends. Also like most here I make a living going against the grain. If you tell me most gain advantage by reading stack overflow? I look elsewhere. Also I can probably afford to spend way more on books than most.

Cheers
Mark
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