When we look at the efforts of most software developers we see a lot of energy being wasted. In the rush to get software completed, there is often little time to reflect on how to improve the way we do things, how to get that special fitness, balance and agility that allow us to be graceful in our intellectual efforts in order to achieve inspired results — with less effort.

We get unbalanced when we have to fix old bugs, losing flow. We often have to speculate about what's needed, and feedback too slow. Our software becomes less than elegant and is hard to change, with tensions and stresses buiding up in us and in our software.

This book is intended to help improve your fitness and agility in two areas of software development where we can make huge improvements to current practice.

First, how to improve communication between the people who need the software and the people who develop it. Second, how to use automated testing to provide immediate and effective feedback so we can maintain balance and agility, and avoid "injury".

The book also questions some common assumptions about the way in which software is developed. But we don't expect that you'll make a big leap of faith; we start with current practice and show how you make small, yet effective improvements.

Authors: Rick Mugridge and Ward Cunningham
Published: Prentice-Hall, July 8, 2005