This book provides a hands-on introduction to test-driven development (TDD), a software development process that emphasizes writing automated tests before coding. Through practical examples, Kent Beck demonstrates how TDD can lead to cleaner, more reliable code by encouraging simple designs and continuous refactoring. The book follows two TDD projects from start to finish, showcasing techniques for increasing the quality of software development.
This book addresses the challenges of forecasting project completion dates by offering practical tools and insights. It helps readers understand how to make accurate predictions and deliver on promises, focusing on the importance of predictability in customer and team expectations. The book is part of Daniel Vacanti's work on improving flow-based processes.
In 'Out of the Crisis,' W. Edwards Deming describes the foundations for a completely new and transformational way to lead and manage people, processes, and resources. Originally published in 1982, the book emphasizes the need for a transformation in management style and governmental relations with industry. Deming's theory is based on his famous 14 Points for Management, which contradict many standard practices of the era, such as production quotas and management by inspection. The book stresses the importance of long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy, innovative plans, and continuous improvement in product and service quality to ensure future success and sustainability.
This book challenges the conventional wisdom in product development by highlighting the flaws in current practices, such as maximizing capacity utilization and eliminating variability. It introduces a new approach based on solid economics and real science, focusing on controlling invisible and unmanaged queues that undermine product development performance. The book provides 175 underlying principles organized into eight major areas, including improving economic decisions, managing queues, reducing batch size, applying WIP constraints, accelerating feedback, managing flows in the presence of variability, and decentralizing control. It draws on insights from lean manufacturing, telecommunications, and computer operating systems to create flow in product development processes, leading to significant improvements even in mature processes.
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson presents a fresh and unconventional approach to business. The book argues against traditional business practices such as writing business plans, seeking outside investors, and staffing up. Instead, it advocates for a simpler, more efficient way of doing business, emphasizing the importance of productivity, avoiding unnecessary meetings and paperwork, and ignoring the competition. The authors draw from their experiences at 37signals (now Basecamp) to provide practical advice and examples that support their counterintuitive ideas. The book is designed to inspire and provoke readers to rethink their approach to work and entrepreneurship.
This week we’re talking about product development structures as systems with Lucas da Costa. The last time we had Lucas on the show he was living the text-mode only life, and now we’re more than 3 years later, Lucas has doubled down on all things text mode. Today’s conversation with Lucas maps several ideas he’s shared recently on his blog. We talk about deadlines being pointless, trajectory vs roadmap and the downfall of long-term planning, the practices of daily stand-ups and what to do instead, measuring queues not cycle time, and probably the most controversial of them all — actually talking to your customers. Have you heard? It’s this newly disruptive Agile framework that seems to be working well.
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