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Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application

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Summary

Getting Real sets out the company’s approach to making web applications with a small team. It favors working software, a narrow set of useful features and frequent improvements over long plans and large specifications. The book starts with the customer’s screens and works back toward the code. It also argues for fixing time and budget while changing scope. Its own caveats say these methods need extra care in systems where lives or finances are at risk.

  • SourceGetting Real — What is Getting Real · Opening definition; benefits; small teams, screens and repeated releases
  • SourceGetting Real — Fix Time and Budget, Flex Scope · Launch on time and on budget; reduce scope rather than extend both constraints
  • SourceGetting Real — Caveats, disclaimers, and other preemptive strikes · These techniques won’t work for me; life/finance-critical systems; use judgment

Why read it Our view

Useful when a software project grows too large to finish. Compare the proposed features with the core customer task, test the screens early, and choose what can fit the time and money available.

Written about

  • Jason FriedCo-author; published under the company name
    The company’s practical guide to building web software. The current free edition credits Basecamp; Penguin Random House’s author biography names Fried as a co-author.
    Source