Nature of Software Development: Keep It Simple, Make It Valuable, Build It Piece by Piece

The book describes software development, starting from our natural desire to get something of value. Each topic is described with a picture and a few paragraphs. You’re invited to think about each topic; to take it in. You’ll think about how each step into the process leads to the next. You’ll begin to see why Agile methods ask for what they do, and you’ll learn why a shallow implementation of Agile can lead to only limited improvement.

You need to get value from your software project. You need it “free, now, and perfect.” We can’t get you there, but we can help you get to “cheaper, sooner, and better.” This book leads you from the desire for value down to the specific activities that help good Agile projects deliver better software sooner, and at a lower cost. Using simple sketches and a few words, the author invites you to follow his path of learning and understanding from a half century of software development and from his engagement with Agile methods from their very beginning.

About the Author

Ron Jeffries is one of the founders of the Extreme Programming (XP) software development methodology. He is an author of Extreme Programming Installed and Extreme Programming Adventures in C#. He is one of the 17 original signatories of the Agile Manifesto.