On "Clean Agile" Book by Uncle Bob

I’m a fan of Uncle Bob. I read Clean Code, Clean Coder, Clean architecture and now Clean Agile. Despite being opinionated, they provide valuable insight into software development. This book is very relevant because I just started working in an agile team. It gives more context of the practices that we use. I’ll summarize some lessons I’ve learned from the book.

• Why Agile?

  • There’s the “Iron Cross of project management”. Good, fast, cheap, done. We can pick only 3 of the 4. In reality it is a tradeoff of the 4 attributes but a good manager should be able to better manage the coefficients with agile. (ch2)

• What is Agile?

  • a framework that helps developers and managers execute this kind of pragmatic project management (ch2)
  • close collaboration, iterative development, short feedback loops and techical excellence to provide business agility and customer satisfaction (ch7)
  • about healing the divide between development and business (ch7)

• Agile values (ch6)

  • Courage, communication, feedback and simplicity

• Is Agile just a set of rules?

  • Ideology vs methodology (ch7)
  • Agile is about idea and ideals
  • Scrum, XP, etc are methods and practices
  • Agile is not fixed to a specific method. Methods can be adjusted according to the needs.

• Is adopting Agile as simple as installing an Agile coach?

  • It requires a change in all business, team and technical practices
  • Business: planning, release cycles…
  • Team: continuous integration, standup meetings…
  • Technical: TDD, pair programming…

• Can large teams use agile?

  • No
  • Large teams are composed of many small teams
  • Agile is for small software teams only (ch6)