Book Review: Understanding The Agile Manifesto – A Brief & Bold Guide to Agile by Larry Apke

Book Review: Understanding The Agile Manifesto – A Brief & Bold Guide to Agile by Larry Apke, Sold by - Amazon Digital Services LLC, ASIN: B00GR31ZDU

Agile manifesto is the soul of agile movement. I was looking around for something which can explain agile manifesto in simple business English. Then I stumbled upon “Understanding the Agile Manifesto – A Brief & Bold Guide to Agile by Larry Apke”. The book is small one evening read of around forty pages which, throws light on the agile manifesto from an agile coach’s point of view. The book is divided into values and principles as iterated in agile manifesto.

Larry has multiple years of experience as an agile coach, and from that experience he shares some practical scenarios while explaining values and principles of agile manifesto.  Some of the examples and metaphors illustrated have assumed that the reader is acquainted with US sports and Hollywood movies.  Also in another metaphor Larry talks about socialism and USSR but I am of the view that political examples were unnecessary in an agile book.

The best part of the book is the weaving of small stories like different treatments to different aged children, carrying a copy of agile manifesto, etc.  within fabric of book. Stories in the book make it interesting.

The book is a good read to understand how various agile practitioners are absorbing and interpreting the agile manifesto.

Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author. I got a free copy of this book from author.


Further reading: Agile manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

1. Book’s web presence http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Agile-Manifesto-Brief-Guide-ebook/dp/B00GR31ZDU

Book Review: Enterprise Service Bus: Theory in Practice

Book Review:  Enterprise Service Bus by David A. Chappell: Publisher- O'Reilly: ISBN- 13: 978-0-596-00675-4

Though book is almost 10 year old but still a good read those who are in integration or SOA domain.

Chappell describes a highly promising (in 2004) but still rock solid technology for connecting together enterprise-wide systems. Now these technologies have expanded beyond enterprise apps to cloud of various flavors.

The books combines nicely described technical descriptions of ESB features with some high-level case studies which gives insight in various use cases for ESB.

Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author. I got electronic format of book from publisher for review.

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

1.     Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Service-Bus-Theory-Practice/dp/0596006756

2.     Publisher -- Oreilly http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596006754.do

Book Review: Hands-On Programming with R - Write Your Own Functions and Simulations

Book Review:  Hands-On Programming with R - Write Your Own Functions and Simulations by Garrett Grolemund: Publisher- O'Reilly: ISBN- 13: 978-1449359010

“Hands on programming with R” very nicely introduces its reader to R. The approach adopted by book is excellent.  Book focuses on language features and its practical usage and takes readers to a smooth journey.

Few people consider R from point of view of Data manipulation & visualization perspective, while book takes procedural language path which is refreshing and will attract more programmers.

The example of casino game seems to be little off from real world usage of R but overall book is excellent and a good start for any programmer to start learning R.

Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author. I got electronic format of book from publisher for review.

Further reading: There are several books on similar topic. The Art of R Programming: A Tour of Statistical Software Design (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Programming-Statistical-Software-Design/dp/1593273843), R for Everyone: Advanced Analytics and Graphics (http://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Advanced-Analytics-Graphics-Addison-Wesley/dp/0321888030)

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

1. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hands-On-Programming-Write-Functions-Simulations/dp/1449359019
2. Publisher -- Oreilly http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028574.do

Book Review: Learning Spark: Lightning-Fast Big Data Analytics

Book Review:  Learning Spark: Lightning-Fast Big Data Analytics by Holden Karau, Andy Konwinski, and Matei Zaharia: Publisher- O'Reilly: ISBN- 13: 978-1449358624
 

Learning Spark: Lightning – Fast Big Data Analytics is still in Early Release phase and will be available in Feb 2015.  I have reviewed first seven chapters of the book which are still raw but coming neat and clean.

This book is very good introduction for newbies to Spark which is rage in Big Data domain. Book almost all samples in three languages – Java, Scala and Python which makes easier for lots of people to try them out and learn Spark.

The first chapter is just gives introduction while second chapter onward real fun starts. Chapter 2 lets you to install Spark on your laptop.  Chapters 3 to 6 talk about programming aspects of Spark. Chapter 7 is about Spark cluster.

I am expecting book will be good one.

Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author. I got electronic format of book from publisher for review.

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

1. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Spark-Lightning-Fast-Data-Analytics/dp/1449358624
2. Publisher -- Oreilly http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028512.do

Book Review: Using Flume: Stream Data into HDFS and HBase

Book Review:  Using Flume: Stream Data into HDFS and HBase by Hari Shreedharan: Publisher- O'Reilly: ISBN- 13: 978-1449368302

Using Flume: Stream Data into HDFS and HBase is for developers as well as Administrators of Hadoop clusters.  In its first chapter book discusses HBase which is little puzzling but as book progresses, it takes you for  deep dive in various aspects of Flume.  Book covers Streaming of data, various sources, channels, sinks, interceptors, and other components of Flume.

The last chapter is about administration of Flume which is very short. This chapter might be little bit in depth to cover capacity planning, deployment options, etc.

Nevertheless, book is a good reference for any person playing in Hadoop playground.

Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author. I got electronic format of book from publisher for review.

Further reading: Apache Flume: Distributed Log Collection for Hadoop (http://www.amazon.com/Apache-Flume-Distributed-Collection-Hadoop/dp/1782167919)

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

1. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Using-Flume-Stream-Data-HBase/dp/1449368301
2. Publisher -- Oreilly http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920030348.do