Kim Man Lui & Keith C. C. Chan 
Software Development Rhythms 
Harmonizing Agile Practices for Synergy

An accessible, innovative perspective on using the flexibility of
agile practices to increase software quality and profitability

When agile approaches in your organization don’t work as
expected or you feel caught in the choice between agility and
discipline, it is time to stop and think about software development
rhythms!

Agile software development is a popular development process that
continues to reshape philosophies on the connections between
disciplined processes and agile practices. In Software Development
Rhythms, authors Lui and Chan explain how adopting one practice and
combining it with another builds upon the flexibility of agile
practices to create a type of ‘synergy’ defined as software
development rhythms. The authors demonstrate how these rhythms can
be harmonized to achieve synergies, making them stronger together
than they would be apart. Software Development Rhythms provides
programmers with a powerful metaphor for resolving some classic
software management controversies and dealing with some common
difficulties in agile software management.

Software Development Rhythms is divided into two parts and
covers:

Essentials — provides an introduction to software
development rhythms; explores the programmer’s unconscious mind at
work on software methodology; discusses the characteristics of the
iterative cycle and open source software development; and
introduces the topic of agile values and agile practices

Rhythms — compares plagiarism programming with cut-paste
programming; provides an in-depth discussion of different ways to
approach collaborative programming; demonstrates how to combine and
harmonize these practices so they can be applied to common software
management problems such as motivating programmers, discovering
solution patterns, managing software teams, and rescuing troubled
IT projects; and takes a comprehensive look at Scrum, CMMI,
Just-In-Time, Lean Software Development, and Test-Driven
Development from a software development rhythm perspective

Abundantly illustrated with informative graphics and amusing
cartoons, Software Development Rhythms is a comprehensive and
thought-provoking introduction to some of the most advanced
concepts in current software management. Written in a refreshingly
easy-to-read style and filled with interesting anecdotes,
simulation exercises, and case studies, Software Development
Rhythms is suitable for the practitioner and graduate student
alike. It offers readers practical guidance on how to take the
themes and concepts presented in this book back to their own
projects to harmonize their software practices and release the
synergies of their own teams.

About the author

Kim Man Lui, Ph D, is an Independent Consultant and a Visiting
Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing at the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University. Dr Lui is a Certified Database
Administrator, a Certified Oracle Database Administrator, and a Sun
Certified Java Programmer. He is also the author of two books.

Keith C.C. Chan, Ph D, is Professor and Head of the Department of
Computing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Previously, he
was a senior analyst at the IBM Canada Laboratory, Toronto.