The Buildmeister's Guide: Achieving Agile Software Delivery Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The whole build and release space is getting lots of attention these days. There seem to be many different vendors coming out with "automated frameworks", many different "best practices" and a wealth of opinions. This book is a nice introduction to the space and should help you to make sense of it all.

I liked the clear definitions of the build process, patterns, frequencies and how they apply to different processes (Agile/Enterprise) and language (Java/.NET/C++) environments. The book documents a number of common sense tips (a la the Pragmatic Programmers books) and they would certainly be good to keep in mind if you are implementing or improving a build process. There is really little technical content, i.e. how can I use Apache Ant, GNU Make etc... but the author states that this is not the purpose of the book - although some examples would have been nice to back up the tips!

A lot of the information has already been published on the auhtors portal: [...], so I would go there first to see what type of information is included in the book. I believe the book is being helped to fund the maintenance of this site - so if you like it you can keep it going by purchasing a copy - you can decide!

In summary The Buildmeister's Guide is an easy and enjoyable read about a relatively new space. It is by no means perfect but I would recommend it if your were a "buildmeister", developer or integrator on a project.

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Product Description:
The Buildmeister's Guide researches and documents the build process in detail. It's aim is to increase awareness of the build process and to raise the level and quality of discussion that occurs around it. The book looks at how the build process affects and is affected by different software development languages and methods, and what intrinsic value a "well defined" build process can bring to an organization. It defines the set of skills and capabilities that implementers of the build process should posses, and also a framework for a generic best practice build process with tips and guidelines on how to implement it. Whether you are a software developer, manager or integrator, this book will help you understand the importance of the build process to your organization and what role you will need to play in it.
The Second Edition has been significantly rewritten and enhanced with new technical content. In particular, content related to Agile Software Delivery, its definition and how it can be achieved has been included in order to make the book more relevant, consistent and readable.

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