Must-Read Agile Software Development Books

Imagine a day in the developer’s life in the early days of software development. Coding used to consume a lot of time, collaboration was slow between developers and testers. Agile project management is an iterative approach to delivering a project throughout its life cycle. Iterative or agile life cycles are composed of several iterations or incremental steps towards the completion of a project. 

Daily team meetings and discussions is an essential part of agile projects. One of the aims of an agile or iterative approach is to release benefits throughout the process rather than only at the end. At the core, agile projects should exhibit central values and behaviours of trust, flexibility, empowerment and collaboration.

This article will tell you which books you should read if you want to learn more about the Agile way of running a software development project. So let’s get to it.

Must-Read Agile Software Development Books

1- Agile Software Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle

Core agile concepts explained with practical examples and practical advice. This book shows readers how to use SCRUM, an Agile software development process, to quickly and seamlessly implement Extreme Programming (XP) in their shop-while still producing actual software. Using SCRUM and the Agile process can virtually eliminate all downtime during an XP implementation.

2- The Art of Agile Development by James Shore

Contains practical guidance for anyone considering or applying agile development for building valuable software. This book provides advice on agile planning, development, delivery, and teaches readers how to adopt XP practices, describing each practice in detail, and tackles the difficult aspects of agile development: the need for cooperation and trust among team members. 

 3- Succeeding with Agile by Mike Cohn

An essential handbook to starting fast with Scrum and agile. This book is for pragmatic software professionals who want real answers to the most difficult challenges they face in implementing Scrum.

4- The Principles of Product Development Flow by Don Reinertsen

Compelling fusion of Agile, Lean, Kanban and much more. This book carefully explains why invisible and unmanaged queues are the underlying root cause of poor product development performance. It shows why these queues form and how they undermine the speed, quality, and efficiency in product development, and then, provides practical methods.

5– Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation by Jez Humble and David Farley

Getting software released to users is often a painful, risky, and time-consuming process.

This book sets out the principles and technical practices that enable rapid, incremental delivery of high quality, valuable new functionality to users.

6- Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition by Lyssa Adkins

This book proposes to dive into the insights readers need to adopt the new mindset and guide teams to extraordinary performance. The reader will find a deep view of the Agile coach’s role, discover what works and what doesn’t, and learn how to adapt professional skills from various disciplines.