Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Agile development: Get more done with less - "Get Real" by 37signals

I've just finshed reading the book "Get Real" by 37signals (developers of Basecamp) and i've got to saw its a fairly controversial and radical way to look at developing web 2.0 apps using the Agile development methodology.

My key take aways from the book are you can get more done with less. Less people (superstar developers), no meetings, no information architecture and no web farm to start. I recently met with a client of ours at Hanson Dodge Creative and talked with them about the shift from the web 1.0 brochureware "website" to the fire breathing always changing web 2.0 "web application". Already a developer of desktop applications, his final words where "welcome to the world of software development" which is so true.

Modern day web apps are complex with true object orientated programming and 3 tier architecture:
  • Presentation Tier (XHTML, CSS, XSLT, Flash, AJAX)
  • Logic Tier (.NET, Web Services, API)
  • Data Tier (Database, XML
So yes todays web 2.0 application is becoming more complex to build, 37signals "Get Real" offers a different methodology and approach to breaking things down and building web apps using their Agile method from inception through completion. If you haven't read it already you can read it free, buy the pdf, or book at 37signals site.

3 comments:

k_co said...
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k_co said...

It's funny, because I had just started reading the essays online and was handed a functional spec document the next day for a project we're working on at HD – what I've read so far offers some interesting and relevant insights.

James Davidson said...

Yes the book has some interesting narrative on less documentation and more development which I’m not entirely sure I agree with. As people come and go have documentation whether it’s IA, FSD, Style Guides etc is helpful for someone new that is trying to familiarize themselves with a project.