rfeio Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 Hi, I'm looking for a book or some sort of documentation that could help me plan the development of an application. I would like to have an idea what pros do before they actually start coding. It's too irritating to start coding and then remembering that I did not consider something and have to go back and change lots of pieces of code. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomfmason Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 I am a big fan of Agile/XP methodologies and BDD. Granted they usually require more than one developer but a lot of it you can do solo. It's too irritating to start coding and then remembering that I did not consider something and have to go back and change lots of pieces of code. It is hard to plan for every eventuality and if you try your project is not likely to get off the ground. Check out http://www.agilemodeling.com/ and http://behaviour-driven.org/ With Agile/XP methodologies and BDD you take "user stories" from the client and do just enough to make that story complete and shippable . Generally a user story can be broken down like: As a [role] I want [feature](sometimes a benefit will help the developer understand the story better) so that [benefit] e.g. As an administrator I want to be able to view active users. I have found that with a more plan driven or predictive development style it is easy to not take into consideration how x feature will effect y feature 3 or more months ahead of time. In a plan driven development style your time estimations are very important and if you run into a major problem like that it is a big deal. With Agile/XP you are writing the stories a few weeks and upwards of a month ahead of time and it is easier for the team to notice potential conflicts before they come up. If they are not noticed that story can be pushed into the next sprint/iteration and you could do what is called a "spike" to research potential solutions. Here are a few of the books that I have read on this subject: http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Software-Development/dp/0201699699 http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Software-Development-SCRUM/dp/0130676349 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfeio Posted August 23, 2008 Author Share Posted August 23, 2008 Here are a few of the books that I have read on this subject: http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Software-Development/dp/0201699699 http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Software-Development-SCRUM/dp/0130676349 What's your opinion on these books? Which one would you recommend the most? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tibberous Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 Books are a waste. To truly understand how to build an application you need to spend at least a week at my house letting me show you the project I just finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.