"PHP5 CMS Framework Development", a book written by Martin Brampton, explores how to approach the typical requirements of a PHP5-based Content Management System and underlying framework.

After contributing for a while to projects like Joomla! and Mambo, Martin took on the role of a lead developer of Mambo 4.6.1. The six months spent leading the project gave him a good understanding of its functionalities and limitations. Martin left Mambo (before they announced to drop support for PHP4 last September) to write his own CMS and "evolve out of the Mambo history", by taking advantage of PHP5 OO enhancements. The result is Aliro: a CMS, a framework and an extension project with traits and genes of the Mambo family. Aliro code is used throughout the book to support and illustrate his presentation.

In raising the question about whether a specific programming language is agile I want to avoid exploring what makes a language agile, or comparing PHP with other languages. The intention here is not to associate PHP to agile as a natural relationship, as much as to try and understand if we can find the ingredients in the PHP world, for creating an agile environment.

Agile in the context of software development is no more than a set of principles and values as they were identified by a group of people (The 17 Agile Manifesto's signatories) who were then developing software in ways that somehow contrasted with the traditional processes. They had introduced into their development, practices which focused on delivering early and often, favoring constant feedback and change, low overhead, reduced ceremony and flat hierarchy.