lessons from extreme programming

[Michael Herman]

wanting to connect a few dots here, still working this
agile/xp experience...

first, you know open space... circle, marketplace, bboard,
breathing.

now, map that to extreme programming(XP).  old-style
planning-driven software development is the two year plan
and delivery of software in six or nine month chunks.
hopefully when the two years is finally delivered, the
business needs haven't changed.  ha!  okay, so XP delivers
software every two weeks.  they sit WITH the customer,
identify needs.  they put them on 'story cards', one
need/module per card and spead them out on a table.  each
pair of programmers grabs one card and works on it for one
iteration, 1.5 hours to perhaps 3 days.  they come back
together after each iteration to compile and green light
what's done and identify what's stuck.  sounds a lot like
morning news and breathing and the rest of open space.

next, think about learning.  in an XP environment, a new
hire will come in and be paired with an veteran programmer
for 2 weeks.  switch for two weeks.  switch again for two
weeks.  end of six weeks, new hire is ready to be paired
with next new hire.  this learning ought to be possible in
other places two.

next, productivity.  at this conference, one organizer
brought one client, a non profit group that needed a piece
of software written to meet some specific business needs.
they called it XP Fest.  they worked nine hours, in six
1.5-hour iterations.  anyone who wanted to program could
come work on it.  they had five computers, so ten workers
per cycle.  they used a new language called ruby, so people
could learn it.  75% of those working didn't know the
language when they started.  the organization experienced
75% turnover in personnel during the six iterations.  the
had working software when they left that needed only one
more iteration to be fully equipped.

shifting back to open space, i am thinking that software
groups like this, and their clients are ripe for open
space.  i think their stories and our stories travel nicely
together, reinforcing and supporting each other.  i also
envision a day when we are growing facilitator groups within
organizatinos, so that managers can facilitate each other's
groups, in a sort of partnered opening/managing function.
paired leadership (facilitator and sponsor) a parallel to
paired programming.  and when organizations learn to open
space for themselves, they will really start to wake up...
and we can all go back inside <grin>.

any thoughts?  anybody else bumping into other agile
folks???

m



--

Michael Herman
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610
312-280-7838 voice
312-280-7837 fax

http://www.michaelherman.com
...an invitation.

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