Review By: Ronald R. Goodwin, PMP
07/08/2010Based on the viewpoint he expresses in "Sustainable Software Development: An Agile Perspective," author Kevin Tate is a programmer, not a developer. From his introduction calling JCL an "antiquated . . . programming language" (tell that to the mainframe gurus!) to stating that "usability testing is humbug," he makes it clear that programmers understand their programs better than the end-users. Unfortunately for the end-user, this is a serious oversight by the programmer, as the programmer is seldom there to help the end-user figure out which of the navigation bars on the left side of the screen takes you to an actual, usable feature.

The author uses iterative development, as do most good programmers or developers today. The waterfall has dried up, and he repeatedly tells us why. “Iterative development,” Kevin states, “is the most effective when there is a broad participation in iteration planning.” After reading this and thinking of the developers I have seen in action, I wonder, does having one other person working with you make the iterative process a “broad participation?”

Iterative development, as explained, is the heartbeat of the development effort. It is what makes the effort sustainable, workable, and good for the team, as it breaks the effort into manageable pieces. This is the same thing that project managers have been trying to do for about a decade--break the project (in this case application development) into bite-sized pieces. Unfortunately, too many developers and programmers want to eat the elephant all at once.

Kevin does one thing very well in this book: he provides a lot of practice sessions. After a three-chapter introduction, each of the next four chapters provides 30 practice sessions, covering documentation to using tools.

Overall, it is a good treatise on iterative development processes, but it isn't what I call a real “Ah-Ha!” type of book. This is a programmer’s book, written by a programmer and aimed at a programming audience.