Agile Adoption Patterns

Proven Patterns and Techniques for Succeeding with Agile in Your Organization Agile methods promise to help you create software that delivers far more business value-and do it faster, at lower cost, and with less pain. However, many organizations struggle with implementation and leveraging these methods to their full benefit. In this book, Amr Elssamadisy identifies the powerful lessons that have been learned about successfully moving to agile and distills them into 30 proven agile adoption patterns. Elssamadisy walks you through the process of defining your optimal agile adoption strategy with case studies and hands-on exercises that illuminate the key points. He systematically examines the most common obstacles to agile implementation, identifying proven solutions. You'll learn where to start, how to choose the best agile practices for your business and technical environment, and how to adopt agility incrementally, building on steadily growing success. Next, he presents the definitive agile adoption pattern reference: all the information you need to implement the strategy that you've already defined. Utilizing the classic pattern format, he explains each agile solution in its proper context, revealing why it works-and how to make the most of it. The pattern reference prepares you to Understand the core drivers, principles, and values associated with agile success Tightly focus development on delivering business value-and recognize the "smells" of a project headed off track Gain rapid, effective feedback practices: iteration, kickoff and stand-up meetings, demos, retrospectives, and much more Foster team development: co-location, self-organization, cross-functional roles, and how to bring the customer aboard Facilitate technical tasks and processes: testing, refactoring, continuous integration, simple design, collective code ownership, and pair programming Act as an effective coach, learning to engage the community and promote learning Integrate "clusters" of agile practices that work exceptionally well together Agile Adoption Patterns will help you whether you're planning your first agile project, trying to improve your next project, or evangelizing agility throughout your organization. This actionable advice is designed to work with any agile method, from XP and Scrum to Crystal Clear and Lean. The practical insights will make you more effective in any agile project role: as leader, developer, architect, or customer. Foreword xxiii & xxviPreface xxviiAcknowledgments xxxiiiAbout the Author xxxvii Part 1: Thoughts about Software Development 1Chapter 1: Learning Is the Bottleneck 3Chapter 2: Personal Agility for Potent Agile Adoption 13 Part 2: Crafting an Agile Adoption Strategy 21Chapter 3: Business Value 23Chapter 4: Smells 29Chapter 5: Adopting Agile Practices 37 Part 3: The Pattern Catalog 53Chapter 6: The Patterns of Agile Practice Adoption 55Chapter 7: Goal 61Chapter 8: Cycle 65 Part 3.1: Feedback Practices 69Chapter 9: Iteration 71Chapter 10: Kickoff Meeting 77Chapter 11: Backlog 81Chapter 12: Planning Poker 87Chapter 13: Stand-Up Meeting 93Chapter 14: Done State 99Chapter 15: Demo 103Chapter 16: Retrospective 109Chapter 17: Release Often 115Chapter 18: Co-Located Team 119Chapter 19: Self-Organizing Team 125Chapter 20: Cross-Functional Team 131Chapter 21: Customer Part of Team 137Chapter 22: Evocative Document 143Chapter 23: User Story 149Chapter 24: Use Case 153Chapter 25: Information Radiator 157 Part 3.2: Technical Practices 161Chapter 26: Automated Developer Tests 163Chapter 27: Test-Last Development 173Chapter 28: Test-First Development 177Chapter 29: Refactoring 183Chapter 30: Continuous Integration 189Chapter 31: Simple Design 197Chapter 32: Functional Tests 203 Chapter 33: Collective Code Ownership 219Chapter 34: Pair Programming 223 Part 3.3: Supporting Practices 229Chapter 35: Coach 231Chapter 36: Engage the Community 235Chapter 37: Reading Circle 239Chapter 38: Workshop 245Chapter 39: Classroom Training 249 Part 3.4: The Clusters 255Chapter 40: Agile Iteration 257Chapter 41: Communication Cluster 263Chapter 42: Evolutionary Design 269Chapter 43: Test-Driven Development 277Chapter 44: Test-Driven Requirements 285 Part 4: Case Studies 293Chapter 45: BabyCenter 295 Chapter 46: Company X 305 Part 5: Appendices 321Appendix A: Pattern to Business Value Mappings 323Appendix B: Pattern-to-Smell Mappings 325Appendix C: Getting the Most from Agile Practice Patterns 327 Appendix D: Further Reading 331 Bibliography 333 Index 339