Agile & Iterative Development

I just finished the book “Agile & Iterative Development: A Manager’s Guide” by Craig Larman.

This book provides a very good overview for managers of the Iterative & Agile Development methods. I liked this book…it isn’t too in-depth…perfect for someone who needs to know the basics about Scrum, XP, UP and other Iterative/Agile methods.

Two things about the book that keep it out of my ‘recommended book list’ are:

1. I thought it could have used a bit more editing/revision prior to release as their are some minor errors, but on the whole this is a very good book.
2. Removal or Revision of Chapter 4. This chapter is an attempt to bring all of the agile/iterative methods together into a ‘story’ but it just doesn’t work that well for me. What might have helped is to move this chapter toward the end of the book after all the methods have been discussed.

Overall…this is a good book and one worth reading if you are interested in learning more about Iterative & Agile development topics. The book really made me think about the ‘tried and true’ PMI methods for managing projects and how those methodologies aren’t really a good fit in the world of software development.

After reading the book (and a few other Agile books) I’ve begun to think about ways to move Agile methods from software/product development to other areas such as IT Management, Service Management and other areas of business.

[tags] Agile, Agile Management, Agile Project Management,Iterative Development, Agile Development, Software Development [/tags]