Before Oracle Application Express (APEX) can be discussed in the light of Agile software development, the stage must be set by defining, for the purposes of this book, what is meant by Agile software development.

This chapter introduces you to the core principles of Agile software development. The core principles were developed by the team of leading software developers who created the Agile Alliance in 2011. The core principles are expressed in the Agile Manifesto, which is further supported by The Twelve Principles of Agile Software; the up-to-date versions of these very short and concise principles can be found at the Agile Alliance web site (www.AgileAlliance.org). These core principles are the common ground that is shared by a number of lightweight software development methodologies. These methodologies grew up and evolved during the latter part of the twentieth century. Some of the common lightweight methodologies are summarized in this chapter because they are useful in the APEX context.

An in-depth discussion of Agile software development is beyond the scope of this book; however, you will leave this chapter with a solid overview of Agile software development. The rest of the book shows how APEX can be configured to directly support the core principles of Agile software development, turning groups of highly skilled and motivated individual developers into effective teams that lead their organizations to technical, strategic, and commercial success.

Agile Oracle Application Express shows how skilled, motivated, and self-organizing developers can realize extraordinary commercial benefits from Oracle Application Express. The secret is to couple Application Express with an agile software development approach. This book leads the way.

Oracle Application Express is well-suited to agile processes, with its support for rapid prototyping and team development. Application Express supports a gamut of enabling technologies such as SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more that enable you to deliver any type of web application to meet your development needs. Agile Oracle Application Express helps you take the feature set of Application Express and marry it with the processes of agile development to iteratively design, create, and deliver quality applications on time and within budget.

What you’ll learn

• Discover how Application Express features compliment agile development
• Apply principles of agile software development to Application Express projects
• Deliver working code to your clients quickly
• Meet cost, schedule, and quality targets
• Increase productivity through team-based techniques
• Create the right amount and size of governance for any Application Express project

Who this book is for

Agile Oracle Application Express is a must-read for highly skilled and highly motivated Application Express (APEX) developers who are comfortable taking responsibility within a self-organizing team environment. These APEX developers want to raise themselves to a higher level of organizational maturity that will position them to improve on APEX's already highly productive software development platform.

Table of Contents

1. Agile Software Development
2. Agile and APEX
3. Core APEX vs. Enhanced APEX
4. Supporting Technologies
5. Project Management
6. Team Development
7. Rules and Guidelines
8. Documentation
9. Quality Assurance
10. Summary