Saturday, December 19, 2009

Book released in the US - Adapting Configuration Management for Agile Teams

Exciting news! My book “Adapting Configuration Management for Agile Teams” which is on the world market is available in paperback and now as a Kindle ebook!  It is the first book of its kind that combines discussions on both CM and Agile. Agile is the facilitator of change while CM is the enabler of change. When done properly, CM provides the right level of control for Agile projects to maintain and increase its high level of velocity. CM for Agile can be a very powerful combination when done effectively.

How can it help you? Aimed at all levels of professionals in the Agile, Configuration Management (CM), Project Management, Product Management, and Development fields, this book provides very tangible support for Agile teams. It focuses on how CM with its practices and infrastructure can be adapted and managed in order to directly benefit Agile projects
What are some unique features of this book that can help you?

 • Provides both an Agile Primer and a CM Primer. For those experienced with CM, it provides a solid overview on Agile(or visa-versa on CM) so you can come up to speed. It can be great for someone who wants to learn both. It’s almost like a two-for-the-price-of-one book!

 • Provides insightful and concrete guidance on adapting CM for Agile methods while maintaining CM principles and allowing minimal structure needed for Agile projects to continue to run fast. Adapting CM for Agile doesn't mean throwing out the CM principles of identification, control, audit and report. Instead it means that CM should be adapted to allow the lean nature of Agile. The question is how do we do this? Inside, learn how to adapt:

o Continuous Integration and Build applying notions of bit-size tasks, right-sizing branches, minimizing merging, emphasizing continuous build, and testing with teeth.
o CM Planning (aka CM Vision) moving away from big-effort-up-front (BEUF) to a more evolutionary approach, applying an iteration 0 to get started, adapting CM roles and responsibilities, and using wikis and other CM formats.
o CM to support more effective Refactoring, Pair Programming, and Test Driven Development (TDD), Traceability, Baselines, Problem Management, CM Audit, and CM Reporting and lean metrics.
o CM support for Distributed Development for Agile teams when co-location is not an option by performing a distributed analysis and considering code access solutions, and supporting a Cloud infrastructure option.
o CM infrastructure for Agile thru implementing CM Envisioning for a brand new product following Agile methods or thru CM Refactoring to adapt CM for an existing product line moving to Agile methods.

• Will help you understand how the more modern CM features help with implementing Agile in an effective manner and that CM tools are a strategic Agile partner.
• Will help you understand how to more effectively support Agile when your organization, product, or project must align with standards and frameworks.

Again the book is called “Adapting Configuration Management for Agile Teams” (ISBN-10: 0470746637). This book is available on both the Agile and Wiley websites. Also, if you want the original CM book which people love as a great CM reference book, feel free to consider, “Software Configuration Management Implementation Roadmap” (ISBN-10: 0470862645).

Have a great day!