Agile RESOURCES

Agile Bookstore

Beyond Legacy Code

Nine Practices to Extend the Life (and Value) of Your Software

We’re losing tens of billions of dollars a year on broken software, and great new ideas such as agile development and Scrum don’t always pay off. But there’s hope. The nine software development practices in Beyond Legacy Code are designed to solve the problems facing our industry. Discover why these practices work, not just how they work, and dramatically increase the quality and maintainability of any software project.

These nine practices could save the software industry. Beyond Legacy Code is filled with practical, hands-on advice and a common-sense exploration of why technical practices such as refactoring and test-first development are critical to building maintainable software. Discover how to avoid the pitfalls teams encounter when adopting these practices, and how to dramatically reduce the risk associated with building software–realizing significant savings in both the short and long term. With a deeper understanding of the principles behind the practices, you’ll build software that’s easier and less costly to maintain and extend.

By adopting these nine key technical practices, you’ll learn to say what, why, and for whom before how; build in small batches; integrate continuously; collaborate; create CLEAN code; write the test first; specify behaviors with tests; implement the design last, and refactor legacy code.

Software developers will find hands-on, pragmatic advice for writing higher quality, more maintainable, and bug-free code. Managers, customers, and product owners will gain deeper insight into vital processes. By moving beyond the old-fashioned procedural thinking of the Industrial Revolution, and working together to embrace standards and practices that will advance software development, we can turn the legacy code crisis into a true Information Revolution.

About the Author(s)
David Bernstein

David Bernstein has coached and trained more than 10,000 professional software developers from several Fortune 500 companies in the course of his 30-year career. His book, Beyond Legacy Code: Nine Practices to Extend the Life (and Value) of Your Software (http://BeyondLegacyCode.com), covers core technical practices for developing software. A longtime special consultant to IBM, David trained software engineers around the world, giving them the skills to write the next generation of applications and operating systems. He is the creator of a wholesale bank-accounting software program that has become the de facto standard across the globe, as well as econometric software used to invest trillions of dollars. Over the past two decades, David has coached and trained thousands of developers at Microsoft, Yahoo, Vanguard, and dozens of other companies in Agile development practices. David is the founder of To Be Agile, a Registered Education Provider for the Scrum Alliance, and trains Certified Scrum Developers in Scrum and XP development practices.

This outside affiliate link may provide a commission to Agile Alliance at no extra cost to you.

Discover the many benefits of membership

Your membership enables Agile Alliance to offer a wealth of first-rate resources, present renowned international events, support global community groups, and more — all geared toward helping Agile practitioners reach their full potential and deliver innovative, Agile solutions.

Not yet a member? Sign up now