Book Review - Adaptive
Software Development 
Adaptive
Software Development
A Collaborative Approach to Building Complex Systems
By James A. Highsmith III
Published by Dorset House, 392 pgs.,
$44.95 USD, softcover,
2000, ISBN 0-932633-40-4
Overview
This is an excellent
book for any software developer, manager, QA analyst, or tester that
wants to understand an intelligent way to build software in a rapidly
changing environment. Unlike other works on Rapid Application
Development (RAD), which have left me asking if there really is enough
process in RAD to define what RAD is, this book lays a very strong
foundation in the concepts of complex adaptive systems theory. These
concepts are used to describe how building software is similar to other
complex systems which adapt to achieve a result which emerges, rather
than are controlled to achieve a result.
Although people who are
proponents of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) may be initially put
off by the ideas of building something that is unknown at the outset,
Highsmith does a good job of reinforcing that rigor is needed. The key
difference is where the rigor is applied. In ASD, rigor is applied to
the workstate rather than the workflow.
Who Will
Benefit
I highly recommend this
book to:
- Project managers,
- Software developers,
- QA Analysts and
testers
What is
Adaptive Software Development?
"Adaptive Software
Development is driven by a focus on people - to share a common mission,
to collaborate, to develop a sense of joint commitment, to learn on the
journey together, and to find a balance between people and product and
between rigor and flexibility."
What I
Like About this Book
First, this book
explains why rigid development methodologies are often inadequate to
meet the needs of software that must meet the demands of a changing
marketplace. There is a spectrum of software development attitudes that
spans at one end the "monumental approach" characterized by monumental
processes and bureaucracy, and "accidental software development" which
rejects all ideas of knowing what is to be built, at the other end of
the spectrum. Highsmith does a good job of helping the reader see that
both ends of the spectrum are dangerous.
Second, the book goes
beyond concepts and shows plenty of ways to apply the ideas. Topics
such as creating the project mission, planning adaptive development
life cycles, and achieving group collaboration are all addressed in
detail.
Third, management topics
are addressed in detail and in easy to understand language. All of
these concepts and techniques are great, but if management never
implements them we just have another good book.
Quote
Worth Re-quoting
"The greatest risk we
face in software development is that of overestimating our own
knowledge."
Scoring
Readability - 5
Breadth of coverage - 5
Depth of discussion - 5
Accuracy - 5
Credibility - 5
Organization - 5
Overall Score - 5
Table of Contents
Read an Excerpt
Read the Forward
Reviewer:
Randy Rice
All materials on this site
copyright 1996 - 2008, Rice Consulting Services, Inc.
Rice
Consulting Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 892003
Oklahoma City, OK 73189
405-691-8075
"Leaders
are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort,
which is the price which
all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is
worthwhile." -- Vince Lombardi
This site best
viewed with the Mozilla Firefox
browser!
|
