References

Books are: Software Engineering

Somerville (note: haven't read the current edition

which mentions "agile")

GOOS by Freeman & Pryce

and Test Driven Development by Example by Beck I should also throw in an honourable mention for XP Explained (also by Beck)

since it pulled some threads together Just realised the McConnell book I meant was “Rapid Development”

not “Code Complete”

but hey ho...they’re both good 🙂 Classic review by Ron Jeffries: ronjeffries.com/xprog/book/books20030904/

Holding up a mirror to agile practices, Chris has been in the trenches for 30 years and still coding with passion. From Spectrums and Specifications to R&D in BT and evolving to incremental delivery, whilst learning what not to do with XP, Chris has an opinion based on deep experience.

Chris defends the use of user stories – always find the human. And Chris still thinks Coders are not close enough to the customer yet and why it matters. Chris explains what a great Product Owner does and reflects on the mystery of UX practice and how they react with Developers.

Chris challenges the view that XP practices are both strong and mainstream, that we still need to get greater exposure to “what good looks like” and outlines how training helps practitioners. He discusses professional standards for developers and the defence of quality and why compromise costs.

Architects may want to review their job description.

Ps: Ian gives away his age by mentioning O levels 😉

Like all our conversations they are au naturel – nothing edited away