Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams

Alistair has always been an interesting thinker, one worth reading for the clarity of his thought and the insights he brings from his very open minded observation and talking with development teams. With his new book, Crystal Clear, however, Alistair has become a really good writer. In fact, I would say he has written the single best book in the collection of writings on Agile methodologies.If you want the most comprehensive overview of Agile, you still must read Highsmith's Agile Software Development Ecosystems. If you want the most poetic, read Kent's White Book. For amazingly clear and simple writing and thinking, Poppendieck. But if you want a really really useful book on how to actually do agile, and you don't have that much time to invest, get Alistair's book.One of the things I really like is the variety of different writing styles from chapter to chapter: from the email "love letters" written to Crystal (Alistair's methodology muse), to the simple exposition of seven properties underlying agile, to the clearly illustrated strategies and techniques, to work product samples, and to the final one page chapter giving an expert (level 3) view of the whole methodology. His writing is constantly engaging, inventive, conversational and even fun.While Alistair writes about one methodology (and only one of his Crystal family of methodologies), the book is still universal. It covers the basic things that few agile teams would disagree with. Even if you work in a large, complex environment, this is the place to start.-May your travels be light and the green bar always on your forward horizon. --Michael

This book is so important to the discussion of Agile/Adaptive development processes that I have included it in my syllabus for Adaptive Project Management (MBA in Technology Management, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, UT).Alistair Cockburn has presented 7 prinicples that assure software development is a human-based enterprise instead of a mechanical process. He doesn't say this explicitly, which is either to his credit, or for his next book: these principles all relate to the process of building trust and groups depend on this elusive element to challenge each other's work and to continually look for the creative and productive solution. The reader would be well advised to read both this book and either Cockburn's Writing Use Cases and/or Ellen Gottesdiener's book on Collaborative Requirements Gathering so that you can practice these principles in other realms of the development process.For more information, contact David Spann [email protected]

Vey clean and highly practical material. Book seems to be big to read, but actually it goes well in simple language with supportive charts, schemes.

Some of the clearest thinking in the Agile space. This text communicates the concept and spirit of what Agile is and why we do it. Cockburn is, gratefully, opposed to dogma and for "thinking" on the part of software development teams - what a concept!

The Crystal methodology is extremely lightweight, and is not saddled with the percieved "rules" of XP. This is *the* guidebook for the Crystal familiy. Pick a few of the 7 properties and get started building better software!

I love this book. Recommended read for anyone who has to obtain requirements form customers. The book also has many team building elements and a great Agile roadmap.

A very good book, but it was a stretch to get it to 300 pages. The first chapter threw me for a loop the way it was structured and the last chapter, a case study, was a dud. While the team size for Crystal should be 8 or less, a case study with 1.5 developers doesn't sound like a very good case study. However, the chapters in between were excellent. Cockburn admittedly structured each chapter differently attempting to cater to different readers. It gave me some insights into how a successful team should interact and was very complementary to the other Agile documentation that I've seen. I definitely liked his guidance on Walking Skeleton and Incremental Re-architecture. It helped me reinforce the concept of an Architectural Slice that I've been conveying to the folks on the large Java project that I'm currently working on.

Despite the fact that a very large number of books about agile methodologies have come out since the beginning af agile software development in 2001 - this Chrystal Clear is a major breakthrough:In this book Cockburn takes the reader by the hand, shares his deep insight in people-centric software development and give precise instructions and advise on how to run sofware projects with communication and human values as the base. You learn a number of proporties, strategies and techniques. I find it hard to tell the difference between these. I think they are all best practices - but really usefull and very well proven best practices.Unlike most other books on methodoligies Chrystal Clear explains itself in depth - and manages on the same time to communicate with the same "lightness" that should be performed in development projects. The lightness is especially present (and refreshing) in the section about the work products, which is the horror of all other methodologies I know... Cockburn learns us, that most work products makes the biggest difference in the project, if they are made on the walls on whiteboards or stickers - as opposed to the usual way where work products are made on computer screens and saved (or "hidden") on server disk drives...Being a full blown methodology - with detailed instructions on how to run your project - I see Chrystal Clear as the first full blown leightweigh methodology since eXtreme Programming - and recommend the book highly to all project managers and everybody else who wants to succeed with their software development projects.Ole Jepsen, Founder of the Danish Agile User Group

Ho acquistato questo libro perché sono affascinato dallo studio dei metodi di gestione dei progetti che sono stati adottati nel corso degli anni.Alistair Cockburn è stato un precursore della visione Agile, nonché uno dei sottoscrittori del Manifesto. È quindi essenziale capire il suo punto di vista.Questo libro illustra come approcciare un progetto che coinvolge gruppi di lavoro medio-piccoli. Per scalare ulteriormente, piuttosto di Crystal Clear, c'è Crystal Orange.I concetti sono spiegati in maniera molto chiara e pratica, già dalla suddivisione del capitoli: ognuno dedicato ad un singolo elemento del processo: i ruoli, gli eventi, etc...Ho trovato degli spunti davvero interessanti, sia dalle sezioni più teoriche, sia dagli esempi pratici di vita vissuta.Una lettura davvero consigliata che ogni agilista dovrebbe avere nella propria libreria.

Great book that gives you a view of what common themes you see in successful project teams and how you can set your team up for success

Was soll man über einen Klassiker schon groß rezensieren ... ?Die Crystal-Methodenfamilie ist ein grandioses Werk, das die Realität in Entwicklungsprojekten sehr viel besser abdeckt als Scrum oder XP.