At less than 200 pages, I was concerned that this book would either not have enough detail or leave me hanging at the very end. Its brevity is a blessing. Practices of an Agile Developer: Working in the Real World (Pragmatic Programmers) is like one of those 1000 page monster tomes, but distilled into manageable slices of wisdom. I absorbed the subject matter without having to reread paragraphs just to plod through a chapter. This book contains no boring filler or meaningless fluff. Each chapter consists of a series of short lessons that can easily be read in a single bathroom session. Nearing the final chapters, my reading pace quickened. I’m not sure whether this was due to shorter chapters or my growing fondness for the book.

Agilists will be tempted by the Devil himself while reading the text. I’m not joking. The book reads as a point-counterpoint argument between opposing angel and devil caricatures. Some of the devil’s quips seem a bit absurd, but the point would probably be lost if other words had been chosen. Rarely is the software world black and white. To depict this, the authors have provided examples to describe what each anecdote should “feel like”. This format works well in purveying the dos and don’ts of Agile Software Development.

“Go ahead, take that shortcut. It will save you time, really. No one will ever know, and you can be done with this task and move on quickly. That’s what it’s all about.”

“Start with the hardest. Always tackle the most difficult problems first, and leave the simple one towards the end.”

The book’s authors are well known amongst the Agile community. Venkat Subramaniam is the founder of Agile Developer Inc., a frequent conference speaker, and professor. Andy Hunt is the coauthor of The Pragmatic Programmer and an author of the Agile Manifesto. Many coauthored technical works suffer from poor editing. Their text reads as if it the authors’ words are stitched together with nothing more than a Ctrl-c + Ctrl-v. While reading Practices of an Agile Developer my inner monologue was only disturbed by the many “Ahah” moments I had while pondering some of the book’s more poignant topics.

If Moses were a Software Developer, he’d have descended from the Mount Sinai carrying Practices of an Agile Developer in his hands. Maybe not, but it wouldn’t hurt developers to read this book. With subjects such as Agile feedback, coding, and collaboration, this book would be a welcome addition to an Agile team’s bookshelf.