Agile has become todays dominant software development paradigm, but Agile methods remain difficult to measure and improve. Essential Skills for the Agile Developer fills this gap from the bottom up, teaching proven techniques for assessing and optimizing both individual and team agile practices. Written by four principals of Net Objectives, this book reflects their unsurpassed experience helping organizations transition to Agile. It focuses on the actions and insights that can deliver the greatest design and programming improvements with the least investment. Through real-world examples, the authors address principles, attitudes, habits, technical practices, and design considerations, and show how to bring all these together to deliver higher-value software. Using these techniques, managers and teams can optimize the whole organization and the whole product across its entire lifecycle. Key Features:* Enter the next phase of Lean/Agile: build the critical Agile skills you need to thrive - and to help your organizations thrive, too!* Will help any Agile team member understand the factors associated with successful Agile design and development - and measure their effectiveness* Covers principles, attitudes, habits, techniques, design considerations - and putting it all together* Packed with examples reflecting the authors' unsurpassed experience helping enterprises transition to Agile About the Author Alan Shalloway, founder and CEO of Net Objectives, is a renowned thought leader, trainer, and coach in Lean, Kanban, product portfolio management, Scrum, and agile design. His books include Lean-Agile Software Development (Addison-Wesley, 2009), Lean-Agile Pocket Guide For Scrum Teams (Lean-Agile Press, 2009), and both editions of Design Patterns Explained (Addison-Wesley, 2001 and 2004). Scott Bain, senior consultant at Net Objectives, is a 35 -year veteran in software development, engineering, and design. He authored the Jolt award-winning book Emergent Design (Addison-Wesley, 2008). Ken Pugh, a fellow consultant at Net Objectives, helps companies move to Lean-Agility through training and coaching. His books include Lean-Agile Acceptance Test Driven Development (Addison-Wesley, 2011) and the Jolt Award-winner Prefactoring (OReilly, 2005). Amir Kolsky is a senior consultant, coach, and trainer for Net Objectives with more than 25 years of experience. Table of Contents* Chapter 1: Programming by Intention* Chapter 2: Separate Use from Construction* Chapter 3: Define Tests Up Front* Chapter 4: Shalloway’s Law and Shalloway’s Principle* Chapter 5: Encapsulate That!* Chapter 6: Interface-Oriented Design* Chapter 7: Acceptance Test—Driven Development* Chapter 8: Avoid Over- and Under-Design* Chapter 9: Continuous Integration* Chapter 10: Commonality and Variability Analysis* Chapter 11: Refactor to the Open-Closed* Chapter 12: Needs versus Capabilities Interfaces* Chapter 13: When and How to Use Inheritance* Appendix A: Overview of the Unified Modeling Language* Appendix B: Code Qualities