This is a list of some resources that are useful for getting started or growing your understanding of Agile.

The permanent page for this content on my website is here (so this is better place to link to since it will be updated).

Getting Started

Short articles for printing out and reading while you are on the train/subway.

• Agile Manifesto – Web page
• Agile Manifesto Principles – Web page
• Article on the history of Iterative developement
• Connections between Lean and Agile
• Short Scrum Guide – 13 page article/guide
• Scrum on a page – This you can put on a wall near you.

Intro to Scrum/Agile

• A Gentle Introduction to Agile – Presentation
• Agile Executive Briefing – Presentation
• Scrum in 10 minutes – Video (10 min)
• A Day in the Life of a Scrum Team – Video (6 min)
• Scrum Overview by Ken Schwaber – Video (60 min)
• Overview Powerpoint by Mike Cohn

Other Stuff you need to know to get your project started

• Getting started with User Stories – Book Excerpt
• Agile Estimation and Planning by Mike Cohn – Video (90 min)

Next Steps

• Check out some of the other resources below.
• Start reading some of the books.
• You have started a journey of learning – be patient and enjoy the trip.

Additional Learning Resources

• Scrum
  • Scrum Overview by Ken Schwaber – Website
  • Scrum Overview by Mike Cohn – Website
• XP
  • eXtreme Programming on C2 Wiki.
• User Stories
  • An Introduction to User Stories – Presentation
• Agile Estimation and Planning
  • Agile Estimation and Planning – Presentation
• Lean
  • Demo showing impact of bottlenecks
  • Lean for Business – Website
• Fun Stuff
  • Punchy video about how Agile can improve on Waterfall
• Agile Team Room
  • Agile Team Room – Photos
  • How does radical collocation help a team succeed?
• Pairing – team collaboration on tasks
  • Benefits of Pair Programming – C2 Wiki
  • Benefits Research Paper – Cockburn & Williams
  • How Pair Programming works - General concepts behind pairing and pair programming] (used in training)
  • Promiscuous Pairing - Some ideas on how rapid pairing can cultivate creativity. Also, How-to Article
• Agile Documentation Practices – Web Article
• Agile Testing – Video (60 min)
• Automated Testing
  • Automated Acceptance Testing – Presentation
• How Agile are you? (Agile Adoption)
  • Nokia Test – basic Agile test
  • Uncle Bob’s more extensive test
• Crystal Clear – low ceremony Agile process
  • 7 Properties of Crystal Clear – Article
  • 7 Properties Mind Map

Books to Read

Stage 1: Getting the basics in place

• Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager’s Guide
• Scrum I: Agile Software Development With Scrum – Basic Instructions
• Scrum II: Agile Project Management With Scrum – Stories about Scrum Usage
• User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development
• Scrum and XP from the Trenches
• Agile Estimating and Planning

Deepening the practice

• Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash
• Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game
• The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility
• Scrum III: Enterprise Scrum

eXtremeProgramming

• Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
• Extreme Programming Installed
• Art of Agile Development

Technical Practices

• Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
• Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

Lean

• Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit
• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
• Critical Chain
• Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation

Other good ones

• Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams
• Managing Agile Projects
• Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas

Games & Simulations

• XPGame – learn how Agile really works
• Leadership Game - learn different leadership styles and how you relate to them
• Bottleneck Game – learn how to improve your processes to eliminate bottlenecks
• Business Value Game – learn strategies and challenges with prioritizing work (product backlog)

Below are the slides from my first presentation at AgileTourToronto. This is a new one I prepared to communicate Agile to C-Level Management.

Agile Executive Briefing – Situational Assessment and 50,000ft view of Agile

The first part of this presentation is a situational assessment of typical challenges in IT project delivery using the SCRAP (Situation, Complication, Resolution, Action, Proof) model. This is essentially a business case for Agile. So if you are looking for ways to get buy-in for Agile, then this is a good place to start.

The second part of the presentation shows you what Agile is from 50,000 ft. From this high up, we’ll be covering the essential elements from a business and management perspective. We’ll cover what Agile is, what it does, how it works and what it achieves.

Each of the parts can be used independently so you may use the first part to get buy-in or the second part as a high-level introduction.

Slides on Slideshare

Below are the slides from my first presentation at AgileTourToronto. It is based on ideas from Alistair Cockburn (among others) and has been a work-in-progress since I started sharing Agile ideas in 2002.

Presentation Overview

There are a lot of choices and alternatives for getting started with Agile. It can be confusing. This talk will give you a brief guided tour of Agile methodologies so that you have some understanding of how they are similar and how they differ. We’ll cover some of the history of iterative development and waterfall as well as the Agile Manifesto to provide context. At the end of this, you will have an understanding of key principles and the Agile landscape.

Slides on Slideshare

A Gentle Introduction To Agile

Agile Tour Toronto 2009 is over and it was an outstanding success! There were 150+ participants, 17 great speakers and lot’s of learning and sharing.  It is really great to see all of our efforts as organizers come together in an amazing conference.

On a personal note, I met lot’s of new people and had a number of interesting discussions and exchange of ideas. We are definitely going to do something for next year and make this an annual event to grow Agile in the Toronto area.

All the presentations will be appearing at DZone over the next several months.  To cover this gap, we are going to publish whatever slides we can directly on our website.  Mine are here: A Gentle Introduction to Agile and Agile Executive Briefing.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this a big success.

Partner Workshops

On Monday and Wednesday, I had the privilege of training together with Yves Hanoulle to run two Agile workshops: KickStart (XP) and Games Day.  It was a great experience for me and for the participants.  Pairing works.  Even for training and coaching.  Who knew?  Yves, i guess So, now I am actively looking to pair with other trainers/coaches.

At Agile 2009, Mary Poppendieck presented on “Deliberate Practice” – how people become experts. The video and slides are available from InfoQ.

Consider the fifth value statement proposed for the Agile Manifesto by Bob Martin:

Craftsmanship over Crap

This presentation follows in the theme craftsmanship – How do we as a community bring it about?

The answer given in this talk is we need to consider what it takes to develop elite level skills in other professions – deliberate practice.  Consider the visual note below:

It seems to me that virtually every company I have every worked for or with has done virtually nothing to bring about excellence in technical (or other) skills.  Imagine what the world would be like if companies viewed their employees as assets and invested in them with mentoring and challenges so that they get deliberate practice.  This requires companies to think about Production Capability and not just Production.  More than just thinking about hitting the deadline.  This is an essential component in build lasting success.

Ever heard of this crazy-sounding approach called eXtreme Programming (XP)? Maybe they were on to something.

As one of the organizers of Agile Tour Toronto I was thrilled with our success in attracting attendees – we sold out a month before the conference.  We decided that we would rather have a smaller conference with a good experience rather than a larger one that is more than we can manage in our first year running it.

To run the conference, we created a not-for-profit organization – Toronto Agile Software Development Community – with a mission of helping people and companies in the Toronto area with Agile techniques.  I was sad that we could not do more to help grow Agile in the community.

A few days ago, Yves Hanoulle, announced that he would like to do some training to help justify flying all the way to Toronto just for a one day conference.  I agreed to help and we are going to jointly run not one, but two workshops around the time of Agile Tour Toronto.  This will allow Yves to attend and present as well as provide an opportunity for those who can’t attend Agile Tour Toronto.  The works are:

Agile Kick Start – Monday, Oct. 19th

Agile Kick Start is for those new to agile as well as those interested in learning more about the technical pillar of Agile called XP.  We also talk about agile values, self-organizing teams, project vision, scaling agile, visual management, the famous XP game.

Agile Games Day – Wednesday, Oct. 21st

Agile Games Day provides hands-on experience with key Agile concepts through a day of learning by doing.  This includes defining business value, leadership/self-organization, and learning how to go faster using the Theory of Constraints.  If you haven’t tried before, this is a great way to learn and internalize concepts.

Why offer these sessions?

As organizers of Agile Tour Toronto, we noticed that there were a lot of people registering groups of people from their company to get basic training.  Hence the motivation for offering Agile Kick Start.

One of the things we talked about doing as part of Agile Tour Toronto was to run a games track since we know how important hands-on learning is.  Then we hit complications like finding more space, soliciting proposals and just didn’t have enough time.

Yves and I are really excited to be able to offer these workshops as a complement to Agile Tour Toronto and hope you can attend.