“The Nature of Software Development” – all you need to know about Agile

There are so many people who have stated that “Agile is Dead” by now, that I am somewhat ashamed to mention it again. However, it is necessary because it is important to realize that buzzwords, consultancy and certificates don’t do much to improve software delivery. The Agile Mindset, however, does help in delivering value with software.

The Nature of Software Development - book cover
“The Nature of Software Development” by Ron Jeffries. (image from https://pragprog.com)

In my opinion the Agile Mindset is very well explained in a little book called “The Nature of Software Development”, written by Ron Jeffries. The book counts only 176 pages, almost every page has a drawing and half of the book contains supplementary essays. This shows how straightforward agile thinking is.

Improving Value is the main goal of any software developer.  Therefore focus on small high value work first. Focus on quality because bugs make value lower and inhibits future speed of value creation. Get quick feedback to prove and demonstrate the value. Show working valuable software every iteration.

The ideas are simple. To me the message of the book is that although practice can be thorny, keeping your mind focussed on the core ideas will help you to pull it off. Ron Jeffries has given you a guide to get yourself to agility.

More details

The Nature of Software Development – Keep It Simple, Make It Valuable, Build It Piece by Piece
Ron Jeffries

The Pragmatic Bookshelf February 2015
ISBN: 978-1-94122-237-9

Ron Jeffries is one of the people signing the original Agile Manifesto. He is also active on Twitter.