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Agile Estimating and Planning (Robert C. Martin Series)

Format: Paperback
Author: Mike Cohn
ReleaseDate: 01 November, 2005
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Rating:

Another Cohn gem! A must read if you are having trouble understanding agile projects.
He follows up his widely popular book on user stories by addressing the next most vexing challenge: planning and estimation. Mike Cohn is establishing himself as THE author to answer the most pressing questions facing the agile practioner. While many were focused on advocating a specific agile method or vilifying them all, Mike focused on what was happening on real projects. The result described in this book is an elegant blend that embodies the intent of all the agile gurus in a straight forward, pratical set of practices.

Having taught and coached these practices for the last seven years, I have seen dozens of variations of planning and estimating required to meet the needs of different projects and teams. This book is a great distillation reflecting the agile community's understanding to date of the most cost efficient way to handle the challenging task of estimating and planning.

A book without blemishes is a book never published. Part III on Planning for Value fails to get beyond concepts into practical application the way the other parts do so well. This foreshadows future work(s) by Mike or others. It is still, however, a valuable pointer to an important part of successful projects.

If you are participating in an agile project and are at all vested in the predictability of the outcome, this book is a must read. It clearly lays out the language of agile, clarifys some oft-confusing concepts, and guides the practioner to an effective approach to minimizing the risks associated with the uncertainty of predicting the future.

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Finally .. practical estimation grounded in reality!
His estimation book picks up from there and will provide even more mileage. Mike's "User Stories Applied" book is continually useful.

I've journeyed through this book now about three times thinking about, considering, challenging, and even questioning the material itself and subsequent application. What has made it so easy to digest is the fact that . . it is easy to digest. Moreover, rather than belabouring me with hideous algorithms, Mike specifically takes into consideration the behavior of the customer _and_ the behavior of software solution delivery teams, role agnostic. Many of his arguments fit well into expected Agile type environments, e. g. Scrum. However, I've been able to use much of the material as independent components in in non-Agile unorganized software environments in a matter of hours. What is even more helpful . . it offers common sense . . and most people get it immediately.

Couple both of Cohn's books together and you have a logical pragmatic approach to user stories including sizing, managing, estimating, tasking, etc. through delivery. No book can teach you to think . . you own that one. Mike's book gives you fundamental lessons you can apply immediately.

IMO, you can learn tools that help you think and problem solve, or you can go buy them. Buy the book, put the tools in your head. .

Finally an Agile "how-to" book
But also I'm beginning to think, that they are repeating themselves more and more. Many, many books have been written about Agile Software Development - and I love most of them. They are all praising Agile thinking, norms and principles. That's fine - but it isn't very instructive. It doesn't take the reader by the hand and say "come here, this way. . . Let me show you how to . . . ".

But now - finally with Mike Cohns "Agile Estimating and Planning" - we have a book that both digs down in a specific discipline and on the same time takes the reader by his hand and help him find his way through the maze of estimating and planning in a highly dynamic environment.

Before I read Mikes book, I didn't realize excatly what it was, that I was doing with estimating and planning in my own Agile projects. I just did it. . . Now I understand how much there is to learn, when you are new to the planning-challenge in dynamic and Agile projects.

A detail I like particuarly is, that Mike describes both Ideal-Days and estimation-points as two different ways of estimating. I agree with the book, that Ideal-Days is too difficult to use. The idea is, that an "ideal day" is a day, where you can work all day without being disturbed. Everyone knows, that these days does not exist - but we estimate as if they did. Afterwords we add some factor to compensate for disturbance. My personal challenge with this technique is, that people tend to forget the difference between ideal days and reguler days, which of course leeds to too optimistic plans. Mike advocates for estimation points, which have worked well for mee. Reason is - i guess - that estimation points are never mixed up with working days, which makes planning much easier and more reliable. . .

If you need some great advice on estimating an planning in Agile (and other?) projects - get Mikes book!

Ole Jepsen
Founder of the Danish Agile User Group.