"The best thinking in the agile development community brought to street-level in the form of implementable strategy and tactics. Essential reading for anyone who shares the passion for creating quality software."

—Eric Olafson, CEO Tomax

"Crystal Clear is beyond agile. This book leads you from software process hell to successful software development by practical examples and useful samples."

—Basaki Satoshi, Schlumberger

"A very powerful message, delivered in a variety of ways to touch the motivation and understanding of many points of view."

—Laurie Williams, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University

"A broad, rich understanding of small-team software development based on observations of what actually works."

—John Rusk

"A superb synthesis of underlying principles and a clear description of strategies and techniques."

—Géry Derbier, Project Manager, Solistic

"Alistair Cockburn shows how small teams can be highly effective at developing fit-for-purpose software by following a few basic software development practices and by creating proper team dynamics. These small teams can be much more effective and predictable than much larger teams that follow overly bureaucratic and prescriptive development processes."

—Todd Little, Sr. Development Manager, Landmark Graphics

"I find Cockburn's writings on agile methods enlightening: He describes 'how to do,' of course, but also how to tell whether you're doing it right, to reach into the feeling of the project. This particular book's value is that actual project experiences leading to and confirming the principles and practices are so...well...clearly presented."

—Scott Duncan, ASQ Software Division Standards Chair and representative to the US SC7 TAG and IEEE S2ESC Executive Committee and Management Board and Chair of IEEE Working Group 1648 on agile methods

"Crystal Clear identifies principles that work not only for software development, but also for any results-centric activities. Dr. Cockburn follows these principles with concrete, practical examples of how to apply the principles to real situations and roles and to resolve real issues."

—Niel Nickolaisen, COO, Deseret Book

"All the successful projects I've been involved with or have observed over the past 19 or so years have had many of the same characteristics as described in Crystal Clear (even the big projects). And many of the failed projects failed because they missed something—such as expert end-user involvement or accessibility throughout the project. The final story was a great read. Here was a project that in my opinion was an overwhelming success—high productivity, high quality, delivery, happy customer, and the fact that the team would do it again. The differing styles in each chapter kept it interesting. I started reading it and couldn't put it down, and by the end, I just had to say 'Wow!'"

—Ron Holliday, Director, Fidelity Management Research

Carefully researched over ten years and eagerly anticipated by the agile community, Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams is a lucid and practical introduction to running a successful agile project in your organization. Each chapter illuminates a different important aspect of orchestrating agile projects.

Highlights include

• Attention to the essential human and communication aspects of successful projects

• Case studies, examples, principles, strategies, techniques, and guiding properties

• Samples of work products from real-world projects instead of blank templates and toy problems

• Top strategies used by software teams that excel in delivering quality code in a timely fashion

• Detailed introduction to emerging best-practice techniques, such as Blitz Planning, Project 360º, and the essential Reflection Workshop

• Question-and-answer with the author about how he arrived at these recommendations, including where they fit with CMMI, ISO, RUP, XP, and other methodologies

• A detailed case study, including an ISO auditor's analysis of the project

Perhaps the most important contribution this book offers is the Seven Properties of Successful Projects. The author has studied successful agile projects and identified common traits they share. These properties lead your project to success; conversely, their absence endangers your project.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 14 Ratings

Extremely Insightful - 2009-02-14
Reviewer Rating:
A very good book, but it was a stretch to get it to 300 pages. The first chapter threw me for a loop the way it was structured and the last chapter, a case study, was a dud. While the team size for Crystal should be 8 or less, a case study with 1.5 developers doesn't sound like a very good case study. However, the chapters in between were excellent. Cockburn admittedly structured each chapter differently attempting to cater to different readers. It gave me some insights into how a successful team should interact and was very complementary to the other Agile documentation that I've seen. I definitely liked his guidance on Walking Skeleton and Incremental Re-architecture. It helped me reinforce the concept of an Architectural Slice that I've been conveying to the folks on the large Java project that I'm currently working on.

A practical wise guide for high-productivity software development with small teams - 2008-11-18
Reviewer Rating:
Alistair Cockburn is a scholar of software methods, especially agile methods. These focus on behaviors that produce software successfully in light of environmental pressures such as resource limitations or uncertain requirements. This book describes an approach to achieving high productivity with teams of under a dozen people, especially those where risks associated with failure are minor. He breaks the world into different levels of risk (from minor discomfort to loss of life) and size of development team (from under a dozen to hundreds). Crystal Clear focuses on the set of small and minor risks, but it's broadly applicable. He identifies 3 most important qualities the method achieves: safety, productivity, and habitability. To address these he identifies 7 method features, 3 of which are critical: frequent delivery, reflective improvement, and osmotic communication. The other 4 are desirable but not always essential. The book is a delight to read, very practical, and full of wisdom.

Yet another tool in the Agile toolbox! - 2007-11-30
Reviewer Rating:
The "Agile" umbrella includes multiple approaches/lenses from which to view, practice and evolve software and teams. Alistair's material offers an additional lens. So when reading this material, I don't believe it was ever his intent for people to pick up Crystal and say "This is it". Rather, this material offers an alternative framework of thought that would nicely meld/synthesize with other characteristics/practices/behaviors under the Agile umbrella of software evolution. I've not personally applied the material yet .. but could see it's inter-relationship to those things I do currently practice today under the Agile space.

Great book - 2007-11-05
Reviewer Rating:
I love this book. Recommended read for anyone who has to obtain requirements form customers. The book also has many team building elements and a great Agile roadmap.

Excellent Writing - 2007-01-05
Reviewer Rating:
Cockburn's writing style is fluid, the agile development topic is interesting, and his experience is very valuable.

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