Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams

As I mentioned earlier in my blog a new Crystal Clear book was published in October. I order the book from Amazon. I read the book over the weekend. It is absolutely wonderful! Alistair Cockburn did an excellent job. I am really beginning to understand what Crystal is and how it can be used - which is a good thing because I have to give a presentation with another student at the end of November.

I totally recommend you getting this book - the only one specifically on Crystal Clear.

Crystal Clear is designed to be used with small teams. There are a lot of similarities to XP but it is less strict. Teams can decide what practises work and which don't. They are not required to follow as many rules. There are only two rules - less than 4 month iterations and the methodology is adapting. Don't get me wrong - I like XP. However, there are times were Crystal Clear might be a better method. I think both are better than the traditional waterfall method taught in software engineering courses. However, this is just my opinion. I have done projects both ways - I personally like agile methods better than traditional methods.

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