TO: SNAPHOOK{at}SWBELL.NET


BD>So, any of you guys heard of it, practiced it?  What do you 
BD>think?  I think there are some very good ideas in there but 
BD>some of it just seems impractical.  If you don't know what 
BD>it is, here are the fundamental tenets:

A change, any change, temporarily increases productivity.  This is a 
psychological fact that has been shown to be true regardless of the 
individual field of work or the particular duties involved.

Xtreme Programming is an experimental step in trying to find an optimum 
methodology to programming.  This may turn out to be the be-all-end-all 
of programming methodologies, but I doubt it.

BD>2.  Small Releases - Release new versions constantly, build everyday.

As long as you've got a small user base, OK.  Linus Torvalds did this 
and it worked well.  If the customer is a multi-national organization 
there probably will be problems of coordination.

BD>6.  Collective ownership - anyone can change any part of the code.

Oh boy.  I get to change ALL the code that  wrote.  
I'll just write him out of history.

As you can see, personalities and egos can too easily get in the way.  
Even in cultures where there is a collective, Borg-like mentality (and 
they are out there, believe me, I see it every day) there is still a 
natural tendency to guard "turf".

BD>So, what do you all think?

I think of this in the same terms that I consider one out of a million 
monkeys sitting before typewriters.  Eventually a work of great 
literature will emerge.

þ CMPQwk 1.42 999

--- Maximus/2 3.01