《Scrum and XP from the Trenches》

The tricky part to agile software development is that there is no manual telling you exactly how to do it. You have to experiment and continuously adapt the process until it suits your specific situation.

This book aims to give you a head start by providing a detailed down-to-earth account of how one Swedish company implemented Scrum and XP with a team of approximately 40 people and how they continuously improved their process over a year's time.

Under the leadership of Henrik Kniberg they experimented with different team sizes, different sprint lengths, different ways of defining "done", different formats for product backlogs and sprint backlogs, different testing strategies, different ways of doing demos, different ways of synchronizing multiple Scrum teams, etc. They also experimented with XP practices - different ways of doing continuous build, pair programming, test driven development, etc, and how to combine this with Scrum.

Your team's constraints may dictate a different configuration of practices (and even compromises), but here is an example of how to approach the "continuous improvement" process that will make your Agile process work best for you.

This book includes:

* Practical tips and tricks for most Scrum and XP practices

* Typical pitfalls and how they were addressed

* Diagrams and photos illustrating day-to-day work

* Testing and test-driven development

* Scaling and coordinating multiple teams

* Dealing with resistance from inside and outside the team

* Planning and time estimation techniques

* Forwards by Jeff Sutherland and Mike Cohn

Download free online version at http://infoq.com/minibooks/scrum-xp-from-the-trenches

Henrik Kniberg is a consultant at Crisp in Stockholm (http://www.crisp.se), specializing in Java and Agile software development. He has founded several Swedish software companies and is passionate about learning, teaching, and applying the art of software development. Henrik takes a holistic approach and enjoys adopting different roles such as manager, developer, scrum master, teacher, and coach. For more info see http://www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg.