Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game

Agile Software Development is a highly stimulating and rich book. The author has a deep background and gives us a tour de force of the emerging agile methods.

Tom Gilb

The agile model of software development has taken the world by storm. Now, in Agile Software Development, Second Edition, one of agiles leading pioneers updates his Jolt Productivity award-winning book to reflect all thats been learned about agile development since its original introduction.

Alistair Cockburn begins by updating his powerful model of software development as a cooperative game of invention and communication. Among the new ideas he introduces: harnessing competition without damaging collaboration; learning lessons from lean manufacturing; and balancing strategies for communication. Cockburn also explains how the cooperative game is played in business and on engineering projects, not just software development

Next, he systematically illuminates the agile model, shows how it has evolved, and answers the questions developers and project managers ask most often, including

      Where does agile development fit in our organization?

      How do we blend agile ideas with other ideas?

      How do we extend agile ideas more broadly?

Cockburn takes on crucial misconceptions that cause agile projects to fail. For example, youll learn why encoding project management strategies into fixed processes can lead to ineffective strategy decisions and costly mistakes. Youll also find a thoughtful discussion of the controversial relationship between agile methods and user experience design.

Cockburn turns to the practical challenges of constructing agile methodologies for your own teams. Youll learn how to tune and continuously reinvent your methodologies, and how to manage incomplete communication. This edition contains important new contributions on these and other topics:

      Agile and CMMI

      Introducing agile from the top down

      Revisiting custom contracts

      Creating change with stickers

In addition, Cockburn updates his discussion of the Crystal methodologies, which utilize his cooperative game as their central metaphor.

If youre new to agile development, this book will help you succeed the first time out. If youve used agile methods before, Cockburns techniques will make you even more effective.