HOW TO START A SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT WAR

In order for the cooperative style of software development known as Extreme Programming (XP) to be successful, business people and IT people must stay true to the XP principles and not revert back to the old ways of working -- no matter what.

"On the whole, XP shifts responsibility for the scope of the delivered system from technical to business folks. The technical folks, in turn, accept responsibility for the correct functioning of the system and for providing accurate and honest reports of progress," explains Kent Beck, XP expert and editor of the Cutter IT Journal special issue titled " XP and Culture Change."

How can this notion of localized emergent control exist in an environment traditionally characterized by having decisions flow down from upper management? For starters, the culture of the organization needs to change in order for XP to achieve satisfying and valuable results. "A culture is the way things are done, seen, and remembered," explains Beck, "Because culture embodies perception and action together, changing culture is difficult and prone to backsliding. You change the way you do design -- such as moving to organic, piecemeal, situated design -- but you can't immediately change the way you evaluate design. Is it easier to change your perception of design or go back to designing the old way?"

In "XP and Culture Change," Beck moderates and analyzes six stories about how it is mostly easier to go back to the old way. But this is only part of the story. Adds Beck, "While there was failure of some kind associated with all six experiences, you'll also see that every single project reported on was technically successful in the sense of producing more functionality, fewer defects, and greater transparency and control to the sponsors than the old ways of working."

Concludes Beck, "After having worked with these examples of XP implementation, I noted that actions are less difficult to change than perceptions. When the IT peeple tried to implement XP principles their actions were viewed as whining by the business people, which left us in the middle of a culture change -- we had a leg on either side of the fence, and we all know how that feels."

Does the specter of culture change turn XP into mission impossible? Not necessarily, asserts Beck. "Organizational suggestions from the technology people can be ignored, no matter the scale of problems or opportunities if those problems are solved. But if business accepts responsibility and authority for the scope of systems -- the major organizational implication of Extreme Programming -- it is reasonable to expect more efficient software development."

-- Cutter Consortium