Archive2012

Target audience: Everyone wanting change Urs’ comment: I really like this book. It’s thin (I read it in three days), it’s full of good advise, it’s written in an entertaining style, it gives my a toolbox that I can start using now. The book categorizes the skeptics into 7 distinct types: Uninformed, Herd, Cynic, Burned, Time Crunched, Boss and Irrational. Afterwards Terrence Ryan shows us a catalogue of techniques how to handle these skeptics. Finally, the book concludes...

Target audience: Software Developers, Software Architects Daniel’s comment: As the title of the book states it is all about applying domain driven design and patterns. The author of the book as a huge understanding of how to develop a whole set of domain driven design and patterns by applying test first paradigms. As the book evolves the code evolves with it. I wanted to start with domain driven design and was looking for a practical approach to it. I definitely found it in the book...

Target audience: Software Developers Urs’ comment: As the back cover says, this is the definitive guide to test automation. If you really want to know all you can know about unit testing then this is your book. However, this book  does not come for free. Reading is hard because it’s not exactly written like a block buster. It took me over six months of hard work to get through it (even with skipping some sections). Therefore, if you want to learn unit testing then you better start...

Target audience: Developers Daniel’s comment: Roy gives away the best tips for successfully unit test your .NET code without using too much evangelism. The book is founded on Roy’s immense experience as a TDD developer and coach and is a must read for every new team member in your .NET projects! Urs’ comment: Probably the best book ever written about unit testing in.NET (or even in general). However, I must say that I do not agree on some things written in it. But that’s...

Target audience: TTD beginners and practisioners Urs’ comment: Simply THE book you have to read when starting with Test-Driven Development. The book provides an introduction to the red-green-refactor cycle with a lot of examples.  If there is a down side to this book then it is that is just covers the basics. A must read for every developer starting with TDD. Daniel’s comment: I couldn’t agree more with what Urs already emphasized about this book. I suggest you read this book...

Target audience: Product Owners, future Product Owners, Scrum Coaches Urs’ comment: This thin book (119 pages) is full of information, tips and tricks for Product Owners. The compressed style is ideal because no Product Owner can say that there is not enough time to read it! Nonethless, the book gives a detailed look into the job of a real Product Owner seeking a product that matches the customers and end users needs. From the envisioning of the product via grooming the product backlog...

Target audience: everyone working with any agile methodology: Scrum, XP, Kanban, … Urs’ comment: If you want to get the most out of your requirements in your agile project then this book is for you. Mike Cohn shows User Stories  as the building blocks of agile requirments engineering. The book covers how to use User Stories, their advantages, their limitations and a lot of  real-world project know-how around User Stories. If you work with User Stories then you should have read this...

Target audience: Agile coaches, Scrum Masters
Urs’ Comment: A must read for agile coaches. A lot of high quality information about how to use Scrum and how to introduce Scrum in an organization. This book is not for beginners, if you’ve got the idea behind Scrum and have worked with it for some time then this book is for you and will help you to make the next steps in getting even more out of Scrum.
ISBN: 978-0-321-57936-2

Target audience: Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters
Urs’ comment: Contains a lot of useful technics and ideas how to hold retrospectives for sprints, releases and projects. A good read for Scrum Masters and agile Coaches. However, the reading is rather boring.
ISBN: 0-9776166-4-9

Target audience: Software developers, software architects Urs’ comment: A must read for software developers and architects (in .NET). This books provides a lot of best practices, patterns and principles (e.g. SOLID). To be honest, I skipped the UML chapter and I only read across the introduction to the principles of XP (there are better books for this). But the book shines on topics such as principles of OO design and packaging and my favourite part is the design smell chapter...