The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
This book is a great read and a fairly concise intro to Agile. Forget the Encyclopedia Britannica-sized text books on Agile - you don't need them. Less is more, simple is better. This book uses entertaining language to explain what its really like being Agile in the real world and not in some academic or ideal environment. If you don't "get it" after reading this book then you probably won't ever get it. Start by applying basic practices and build a culture of trust, respect, continuous improvement, and retrospection. Keep what works and discard what doesn't. There is no "one way" to do this stuff. It's all context dependent, so no book will be able to solve all your problems. But if you follow and understand the principles and practices described by "Master Sensei" then you'll surely be on the right path. A good intro to Agile philosophy and techniques, but the specifics are pretty basic if you're already familiar with the material. The one thing I really liked about this book compared to other Agile books was how dogma-free it was. He doesn't get too attached to specific ideologies such as XP, Scrum, or Kanban. Instead, he adopts a much more pragmatic approach which continuously points to the general principles of the Agile Manifesto. In short, take the best of what's out there, tweak it to work in your specific situation, and discard those practices that aren't helping you produce great software.
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