Pragmatic Programming

In the last years a number of software development methodologies were formulated:

• Extreme Programming by Ron Jeffries, Extreme Programming
• Agile Development, Agile Modeling, Agile Draw, Agile Database Development
• Feature-Driven Development
• Test-Driven Development
• Rational Unified Process (RUP)

These iterative methodologies make use of the following techniques.

• Refactoring
• Continous Integration
• Unit testing

As a pragmatic programmer you do not stick to one of these methodologies, but choose the methods and techniques that work best for you. Well, there is more to it, see all the tips and checklists at The Pragmatic Programmer Quick Reference Guide. I really recommend to read the whole story in the book The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas (or the german translation).

I also enjoyed the german translations of the books Pragmatic Project Automation (german) and Ship it! - A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects (german).

There is a web site for Pragmatic Project Automation.