InfoQ Video: Practices of an Agile Developer

by Deborah Hartmann Preuss on Mar 31, 2008 |

At "No FLuff Just Stuff" Venkat Subramaniam, co-author with Andy Hunt of the book "Practices of an Agile Developer," shared his pragmatic approach to some of the important technical and non-technical factors contributing to project success, including: coding, developer attitude, debugging, mentoring and feedback. InfoQ has captured Venkat's presentation, "Practices of an Agile Developer," on video.

Venkat describes their approach as consisting of "Practices and Balance:"

We’ll start with often convincing, but troubling, thoughts...
We’ll discuss good practices, recommendations, dos and don’ts, and
We'll summarize our advice for the practice, then
Tell you "what it feels like" when you're doing it right, and
Tell you how to keep your balance.

In this presentation, as in their book, each point starts with the voice of both the "angel" and the "devil" in each of us, for example:

The "what it feels like" section is unusual, and welcome. For example:

The video covers these topics, just a sampling of the 45 practices included in the book:

Beginning Agility:

Work for Outcome
Criticise Ideas, not People

Feeding Agility:

Keep Up With Change
Invest in Your Team
Feel the Rhythm

Delivering What Users Want:

Let Customers Make Decisions
Let Design Guide, Not Dictate
Fixed Prices are Broken Promises

Agile Feedback:

Different Makes a Difference

Agile Debugging:

Attack Problems in Isolation

Agile Collaboration:

Schedule Regular Face Time
Be a Mentor

Venkat and Andy created the book to help developers incrementally grow their skillsets while tackling real problems in their everyday work. In our 2007 interview, Venkat had this to say on the topic of continuous, ongoing education:

I think it is important that we all spend time; if you are a person who is interested in a 9 to 5 job, I recommend that you have a career switch. Software development is not a field where you can just go to work; we are a professional community; it requires a great deal of effort and agility to keep up with it. So get on the treadmill and march along and that's the only way to succeed.

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Community comments

Great presentation on Agile programming by Pawan Kumar Posted

I'm converted :) by João Vieira da Luz Posted

Very good talk by Marcos Oliveira Posted

Great presentation on Agile programming by Pawan Kumar

Venkat,
I really enjoyed your presentation and most of the things said in the presentation. It will help me a lot in changing the way I am working right now and also my team members.
Thanks
Pawan

I'm converted :) by João Vieira da Luz

Nice talk in an agile style. Trying to keep the feedback loop short. It's very clear Agile in Venkat words.

Thanks for talk João

Very good talk by Marcos Oliveira

Venkat, this is the best talk I've seen on how to make a team work. Thank you very much.