12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Standard Reference on Specification by Example and A-TDD, Jun 24 2011
By Bas Vodde - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Specification by Example: How Successful Teams Deliver the Right Software (Paperback)
Specification by Example is Gojko's third book on this subject. The first book, Fitness.net, was very technical and tool oriented. The second book, Bridging the Communication Gap, was a lot more coordination oriented. Now his third book, this one, he describes practices that teams he studied have used. From that perspective, this book is the follow-up of Bridging and might go a little fast if you are totally unfamiliar with the subject.
The book is divided in three parts. The first part is mainly introduction where Gojko describes the benefits and the key practices that will be described in this book. The second part is the actual description of the key practices and the third part are different case studies about different teams in different companies that have adopted specification by example.
The key practices that are introduced in part one and described in part 2 are:
- Deriving scope from goals
- Specifying collaboratively
- Illustrating using example
- Refining the specification
- Automating without changing the specification
- Validating frequently
- Evolving a documentation system
Deriving scope from goals discusses how customers main concert is not the software but solving a problem and developers shouldn't just expect to get the requirements from the customer but work together with them to help them to solve their problem in the best way. Specifying collaboratively covers how the customer and the teams will cooperatively define the specifications that the team will be implementing later. Illustrating using examples explains how these specifications can be described best by moving from abstract requirements to concrete examples. Refining the specification then takes the essence out of the requirements and describes them in the clearest possible way. After that, the specification can be automated without changing the specification and this chapter gives tips on how to do that. When the specifications are automated, you want to run them frequently which is described in the validate frequently chapter. Evolving a documentation system describes how the specifications become the documentation of what the system does. They stay in-sync with the system because they are continuously executed.
The third part described a couple of case studies of companies that implemented specification by example. I really loved these case studies and they were written very well.
I've read both of Gojko's earlier books and had high expectations for this book. I was not disappointed, it is an excellent follow-up and will be my standard book reference on Specification by Example (or A-TDD as it is also called). The book is not perfect though. As times I felt there was too much focus on documentation and too little on collaboration. Still, I'd rate this book five stars and recommend everyone in an Agile development team to read this and practice specification by example.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
CAUTION: This book could seriously improve the way you deliver software!!!, Oct 11 2011
By A Spec by Example user "from the real wo... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Specification by Example: How Successful Teams Deliver the Right Software (Paperback)
The concepts in this book, process patterns as Gojko describes them, seem quite straight forward and that's partly because they are, partly because they are very well described within and partly because they just make so much sense.
Its pages describe one of the most effective ways in which teams can build the right product and build that product right. Specification by Example harnesses some key attributes of agile frameworks such as Lean & XP in a mechanism that allows teams to get from business ideas to an implemented and evolving (self-documented) product with the minimum of fuss or waste.
What's more from the research undertaken with real teams in real companies, you the reader, can learn from the many other practitioners who have been using and honing these techniques in the field (that's a real field by the way, with grass and everything).
I think it's rare to get this amount of good practical advice from so many teams distilled into a single reference guide alongside the process.
A fantastic book which should be the accompaniment of every software team member!!!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Succeeding with Agile and Quality, Nov 3 2011
By AgilePro - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Specification by Example: How Successful Teams Deliver the Right Software (Paperback)
So many organizations that do 'Agile' don't understand that there is a process by which teams need to work in order to understand what they are building. Having led many organizations through this effort I had developed many of the types of processes that are presented in this book, but Gojko has provided guidance around all the many types of projects that teams face while trying to be Agile on top of it.
One of the biggest questions I have always received is how do you scale a process for specifying your work via Examples so that small projects can obtain the same benefits and this is covered very well in the book, it has given me many new ideas about how to work within smaller project/team structures.
If you are just starting Agile, read this book, your teams will benefit from the discipline of Specification by Example. If you are already Agile this book will help you get better, improve your velocity, lower defects identified and generally make the process of moving fast less stressful.
Quality isn't a word is a process and this book will help you build the right process for your organization.