[oak perl] "The Irony of Extreme Programming"?

Robert Kuropkat robert-kuropkat at comcast.net
Tue Apr 13 22:42:33 CDT 2004


Interestingly, I just read it a few hours ago.  I also have complaints about XP though in fairness it is not 
from experience or extreme knowlege of the process.  In fact, I've just started reading up on it so I can 
understand it better. 

My basic complaint is the lack of documentation which I think was the most valid point of the article.  To 
do documentation on whiteboards, napkins or whatever then throw it away just because you don't want 
to take the time to clean it up, keep it current and/or hire a tech writer to do that just seems childish to 
me.

However, I do think the article made some unfair points.  In one case they mentioned an example 
where 16 tests were added and amongst the team there was much rejoicing.  Then they later took 
those same tests out and again, there was much rejoicing.  

Clearly this was a case of stupidity but I think they incorrectly blamed the process for this.  NO process 
will filter out all stupidity, that is the domain of the team lead, or in XP speak, the Coach.  This example 
was not a failure of the process, it was a failure of one person to do his job.  The coach is the one who 
should have caught this and instituted a moment to go "hmmm...." and figure out why they just did a 
project sit-n-spin.

That being said, I think having documentation would have helped catch this sort of thing rather than 
relying on everyone to keep everything in thier heads.

So far, that is my major complaint with XP.  I do wish I could work on a project that used it though so I 
could get some hands on experience with it....

Robert Kuropkat

P.S.  FWIW, I have also read the author's book on Use Case Object Model Driven Development which 
is an approach I would also like to try out sometime...


On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 13:22:43 -0700, George Woolley wrote:

>I believe 
>many of you see Dr. Dobb's Journal  each month.
>
>In the May issue 
>is an article entitled
>"The Irony of Extreme Programming"?
>Anyone have any comments
>on this article?
>
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