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Extreme Programming

07/21/2003

Summary: Extreme Programming doesn't impress me. (To be fair, I think most software development processes being hyped are just as unimpressive as XP is. I believe in process but I don't believe in hype.) This is an opinion piece. If you are already convinced XP is the best thing since sliced bread, it probably won't convince you.

When I first heard of "Extreme Programming", I thought use of the term "Extreme" didn't bode well. It instantly evoked the idea of extreme sports. When I think about extreme sports, I think:

  • lack of maturity,
  • lack of moderation.

Reading more about Extreme Programming, I found that it is marked by two characteristiscs:

  • lack of maturity,
  • lack of moderation.

So maybe my first impression was right. My own approach to software processes is "recognize what works and use it as needed". Which means there is no cookie-cutter solution to software development.

Then there is something I learned about a few days ago. Something that the proponents of XP are not very forthcoming with. The original project for which XP was developed (the C3 project at Chrysler) failed! The best account of this I've seen so far can be found in this document by Gerold Keefer on page 20 (it's a PDF). I think this is pretty damning evidence. Some XP evangelists are sure waiving their magic wands around to turn that failure into a success as you can see on that wiki but I don't find that convincing. One reasonable argument would be that XP evolved since C3 and has addressed its earlier shortcommings. First, I must say I haven't seen any act of contrition on the part of the XP evangelists that were part of the C3 project on this. Rather, like I said earlier, they wave the problem away. They say the problem was political (again, see the wiki above for examples), therefore it is not a shortcomming of XP. More importantly, however, admitting that XP had shortcommings would be admitting that it was immature and has been unleashed upon the world prematurely.

The waiving away of problems done by the XP evangelists is one serious problem. To me, that's an indication the whole thing is more a cult than a sound methodology.