Monday, January 5, 2009

Quick thought on XP, I think it could use a better name

Instead of calling the methodology known as eXtreme Programming eXtreme Programming, I think it would be better to call it Best Practices Programming, or BPP

Sure the programmers will scoff at it, but I think the directors and VPs who are looking to integrate a concept of best practices into their organization would love to be able to say that they've been so successful at bringing in best practices that they've not only got them on a wiki somewhere, their organization is so best practice oriented that they are using Best Practice Programming as the way they do all of their work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it should be called Burnout Programming or possibly ADD Programming. I hardly consider it "best practices" since most places that use it are just hammering out iteration after iteration with very little guidance if this functionality meets the users needs.

Paul Wiedel said...

@Anonymous,
I agree that the so-called agile methodologies are partially used or incompletely used to an unhappy end.

There are shops that use XP to positive results. There are also shops that use XP or use the parts that they agree with to less positive results.

I believe that teams can fail using any methodology. It really isn't the methodology's fault because in most cases the failures are external to the rules that the teams neglect to follow.

The reasons for failure are more complex than just chosen methodology. I believe that organizations that fail to deliver with waterfall or any other sets of practices are not going to magically succeed when they adopt an agile methodology.

I would bet that they fail differently, possibly in a better more helpful way.

The intent of renaming XP is my belief that people are turned off by the name. The original intent of calling the methodology known as XP XP is taking a collection of the aspects of programming that were believed to be good, e.g. pair programming, test driven development, etc., i.e. "best practices" and cranking them up to 11, i.e. being extreme.

I don't know whether it's the best way to do work. It really depends on who's doing it.