Questioning Extreme Programming

From the Book: Extreme Programming sounds great—can we do it without changing our process? When I first heard about Extreme Programming in May 1998 I could see that it was going to be controversial. It was immediately obvious from the wide range of reactions that were expressed to two talks given by Kent Beck and Ron Jeffries at a seminar on “Developing Software with Objects” in Oslo. (Hosted by Den Norske Dataforening on 13 May, 1998) Many developers seemed to be attracted to it, but others in the room challenged the ideas and concepts behind Extreme Programming. Personally my reactions were mixed. It sounded like it would be a fun approach to software development and it didn’t sound like it was applicable to the kinds of projects that I was involved in. Admittedly, my initial reservations were about how easy it would be to sell the approach, but as I inquired deeper into Extreme Programming I came to realize that there are fairly stringent preconditions for teams that wish to adopt and use XP. It seems to me that many of the reactions to Extreme Programming can be explained by the fit between these preconditions and the particular project circumstances that a person has experienced. This book sets out to question Extreme Programming in an attempt to understand and explain the controversy that surrounds Extreme Programming. My goal for this book is to allow you, the reader, to determine if Extreme Programming is applicable and appropriate for your projects, to investigate what lessons can be learned from Extreme Programming and to enable you to be more reflective about your software development practices. Before getting down to that I must firstexplain my biases. As a developer I am attracted towards the ideas behind XP, mainly because most of the developers I have talked to that have worked on XP projects have really enjoyed the experience. I am also a strong fan of XP style unit testing and have introduced JUnit (www.junit.org) to many project teams. Although I have never worked on a full XP project, I have worked in a team that initially claimed that it was going to be doing XP, but actually turned out to be doing something that was vaguely related to some of the XP practices. As much as is possible I have tried to present both sides of the debate surrounding Extreme Programming without getting into the continual flame-fest that discussions on usenet newsgroups and email lists often contain. I have written this book as a practical guide for four different audiences: people who are thinking of adopting Extreme Programming people who are resisting the idea of adopting Extreme Programming, people who are looking for alternatives to Extreme Programming people who are interested in improving their current software development process As a practical guide this book is focused on identifying issues surrounding software development and discussing how Extreme Programming interacts with these issues. As this is a practical guide, you will not find much in the way of detailed studies and experimental data. This book focuses on clarifying the issues so that you, the reader, can determine the fit between Extreme Programming and your specific circumstances. Adopting Extreme Programming All processes are situational. Software development is not a mechanical process and as such you will never be able to adopt a process without doing some adapting to fit with your circumstances and team. Before adopting Extreme Programming you need to have a deep understanding of the values that drive it so that the adaptations you make match the overall spirit of XP. This book looks back to the roots of XP to enable you to understand the underlying software development issues so that you can better assess how XP will fit your organization. This book will also expose you to alternate approaches that might be a better fit. Resisting Extreme Programming Extreme Programming is a different kind of software development process, it is one that many programmers actually want to use. All too often however this means that some programmers end up pushing the idea of adopting XP when for one reason or another it does not really fit the organization. This book provides the questions you need to ask to determine whether XP really does fit the needs and circumstances of your organization. Hopefully it will also allow you to identify the issues with your current process that caused XP to be raised as a potential alternative in the first place. Then, rather than shooting the messenger or dismissing the message, the book asks the question “What can we learn from XP? ” Looking For Alternatives To Extreme Programming Extreme Programming is a great fit for some projects and organizations, but one size does not fit all. There are many other software development approaches, and with all of the exposure that Extreme Programming is getting, these alternatives are getting somewhat lost. Using an Agile Methodology does not necessarily mean using Extreme Programming. Questioning Extreme Programming attempts to uncover the issues that are driving the creation of new approaches to software development. By exposing these issues I hope to spur software developers and their managers to create alternative approaches that build on the strengths of Extreme Programming while incorporating the strengths of the other approaches. Improving Your Current Software Development Process Adopting a new software development process can be hard. The organization has to learn how to effectively apply the new process and there is the transition period when some projects are using the new process while the rest are still using the old process. Sometimes it just makes sense to retain your existing process and to try to improve it by dropping parts, changing parts and adding new parts. By continually asking the question “What can we learn from XP? ” this book highlights different ideas that could potentially be applied within the context of a different process. The resulting hybrid will not be XP, but then again, that is not the goal. By adopting the Extreme Programming mindset of continually reflecting on, and tinkering with, the process, you open up the possibility of creating your own optimized process. Why You Should Read This Book The way that we develop software is changing. Yes, people have always claimed that the IT industry has been a real driver for change, but until recently that change has only really shown up in the hardware and software. The way that we develop software has been remarkably resistant to change. Indeed Watts S. Humphrey spoke for many methodologists in his article, “Why Don't They Practice What We Preach? ” when he said “One of the most intractable problems in software is getting engineers to use effective methods. ” http://www.sei. cmu.edu/publications/articles/practice-preach/practice-preach.html Many proponents of Extreme Programming would claim that the problem is no longer intractable - lots of programmers would jump at the chance of using XP. Indeed many developers are very keen to experiment with and try out new ways of developing software. It seems as if developers are beginning to see that things have changed. Jim Highsmith probably summed this up best when he said “We must challenge our most fundamental assumptions about software development. ” Highsmith, 2000, p13 Questioning Extreme Programming invites you to take up that challenge. Acknowledgments First I would like to thank Kent Beck, Ward Cunningham and Ron Jeffries for starting the conversation around eXtreme programming. If nothing else they have managed to make software development methodologies interesting again. As usual, the team at Addison-Wesley was extremely supportive and enthusiastic about this projectRoss Venables, Mike Hendrickson, et. al. My reviewers seemed particularly gleeful this time, and although one expressed regrets that the book is not the flame-fest material he hoped for, all helped me to clarify my thoughts about Extreme ProgrammingAlastair Handley, Andy Hunt, Dave Thomas, Greg Klafki, Jens Coldewey, Jim Highsmith, Kent Beck, Miroslav Novak, Ron Jeffries and Rudy Wrench.