eXtreme Programming was developed in the late 1990s by Ken Beck, Ron Jeffries, and Ward Cunningham. During this time, the trio was working on the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation System (C3) to help manage the company payroll system. eXtreme Programming (XP) is a software development methodology. It is designed to improve software quality and the ability of software to adapt to changing customer needs.
Understanding eXtreme Programming
In 1999, they published the book Extreme Programming Explained about their collective experience at Daimler Chrysler and described their methods in detail.
From their experiences, XP was born.
Extreme Programming is like many other agile methods, but in an interview, Beck explained what makes XP unique:
“The first time I was asked to lead a team, I asked them to do a little bit of the things I thought were sensible, like testing and reviews. The second time there was a lot more on the line. I asked the team to crank up all the knobs to 10 on the things I thought were essential and leave out everything else.”
Indeed, XP promotes frequent, iterative releases throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC).
But the main difference between XP and similar methods, as Beck notes, is that it takes software engineering to “extreme” levels.
Code reviews are one such example. In XP, pair programming should be subject to peer reviews 100% of the time.
XP also focuses on short iterations and release cycles. This helps businesses reduce the likelihood of misalignment with customer needs caused by unnecessary product features.
When should eXtreme Programming be used?
XP is best suited to businesses that can incorporate a high degree of customer collaboration and continuous development.
Having said that, XP can also work well for teams that:
Expect system functionality to change periodically, such as every few months.
Have tight deadlines and want to mitigate risk.
Have a small number of programmers who contribute to code and suggest fixes, etc. By using pair programming and frequently rotating programmers through the team, XP facilities communication and collaboration.
Deal with customers who constantly change project requirements because of uncertainty around what they want the system to achieve. In this case, teams can use class-responsibility-collaboration (CRC) cards that allow them to design a system and see how each object interacts.
The five fundamental values of eXtreme Programming
Early incarnations of eXtreme Programming established five fundamental values that are now common to many subsequent frameworks such as Scrum.
The five values are:
Simplicity
To maximize value, the project team will do what is needed – but no more.
Product development should be broken down into small, value-adding steps that identify and then mitigate errors as they occur.
Streamlined communication
Teams work together on every facet of a project and participate in daily face-to-face meetings so that every member is abreast of the latest developments.
Individuals are encouraged to raise any concerns which should be addressed swiftly.
Consistent, constructive feedback
eXtreme Programming teams adapt their processes to the needs of the project and the customer.
The software should be demonstrated early on so that feedback can guide necessary improvements.
Respect
Each team member should give and receive respect.
This can be facilitated by ensuring that everyone feels they are making a positive contribution – no matter how trivial or insignificant.
Developers should respect the expertise and knowledge of customers, and vice versa.
Respect also means that management let project teams work with autonomy and responsibility without becoming dictatorial.
Courage
This can be difficult because it often necessitates that hard decisions be made.
Courage also involves telling the truth about progress, particularly when progress has not met expectations.
To that end, no excuses for failure are ever made.
eXtreme programming Vs. Scrum
Scrum is a methodology co-created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland for effective team collaboration on complex products. Scrum was primarily thought for software development projects to deliver new software capability every 2-4 weeks. It is a sub-group of agile also used in project management to improve startups’ productivity.
Scrum is a broader methodology and toolbox, which can also comprise eXtreme programming as one of the tools within that toolbox.
eXtreme programming Vs. Agile
Agile started as a lightweight development method compared to heavyweight software development, which is the core paradigm of the previous decades of software development. By 2001 the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was born as a set of principles that defined the new paradigm for software development as a continuous iteration. This would also influence the way of doing business.
eXtreme programming is a sort of agile methodology as, like in agile, it supports frequent releases in very short cycles by focusing on simplicity, streamlined communication, consistent feedback, respect, and courage.
Yet, compared to agile in general, where there is a loop and a small layer between the development teams and customers, intermediate by product managers, which cross the bridge between developers and customers.
In eXtreme programming, the customer is part of the loop, and there are – in theory – no layers between the development team and customers, which are active participants n these short development cycles.
eXtreme programming Vs. Kanban
Kanban is a lean manufacturing framework first developed by Toyota in the late 1940s. The Kanban framework is a means of visualizing work as it moves through identifying potential bottlenecks. It does that through a just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing process to optimize engineering processes, speed up manufacturing products, and improve the go-to-market strategy.
Whereas Kanban, as adapted in software development, does not necessarily follow an interactive cycle, eXtreme programming, similarly to other agile methodologies and Scrum, does follow an iterative cycle.
Key takeaways
eXtreme Programming is an agile methodology that supports frequent releases in very short cycles. This allows developers to adapt to changing customer requirements without sacrificing quality.
eXtreme Programming is best suited to smaller project teams who can continuously engage with customers to a high degree.
eXtreme Programming is based on five fundamental values: simplicity, streamlined communication, consistent feedback, respect, and courage. Many of these values have been adopted for use in subsequent agile methodologies.
AIOps is the application of artificial intelligence to IT operations. It has become particularly useful for modern IT management in hybridized, distributed, and dynamic environments. AIOps has become a key operational component of modern digital-based organizations, built around software and algorithms.
Agile started as a lightweight development method compared to heavyweight software development, which is the core paradigm of the previous decades of software development. By 2001 the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was born as a set of principles that defined the new paradigm for software development as a continuous iteration. This would also influence the way of doing business.
Agile Program Management is a means of managing, planning, and coordinating interrelated work in such a way that value delivery is emphasized for all key stakeholders. Agile Program Management (AgilePgM) is a disciplined yet flexible agile approach to managing transformational change within an organization.
Agile project management (APM) is a strategy that breaks large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. In the APM methodology, each project is completed in small sections – often referred to as iterations. Each iteration is completed according to its project life cycle, beginning with the initial design and progressing to testing and then quality assurance.
Agile Modeling (AM) is a methodology for modeling and documenting software-based systems. Agile Modeling is critical to the rapid and continuous delivery of software. It is a collection of values, principles, and practices that guide effective, lightweight software modeling.
Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA) is certification in the form of guidance and training for business analysts seeking to work in agile environments. To support this shift, AgileBA also helps the business analyst relate Agile projects to a wider organizational mission or strategy. To ensure that analysts have the necessary skills and expertise, AgileBA certification was developed.
Agile leadership is the embodiment of agile manifesto principles by a manager or management team. Agile leadership impacts two important levels of a business. The structural level defines the roles, responsibilities, and key performance indicators. The behavioral level describes the actions leaders exhibit to others based on agile principles.
Bimodal Portfolio Management (BimodalPfM) helps an organization manage both agile and traditional portfolios concurrently. Bimodal Portfolio Management – sometimes referred to as bimodal development – was coined by research and advisory company Gartner. The firm argued that many agile organizations still needed to run some aspects of their operations using traditional delivery models.
Business innovation is about creating new opportunities for an organization to reinvent its core offerings, revenue streams, and enhance the value proposition for existing or new customers, thus renewing its whole business model. Business innovation springs by understanding the structure of the market, thus adapting or anticipating those changes.
Business modelinnovation is about increasing the success of an organization with existing products and technologies by crafting a compelling value proposition able to propel a new business model to scale up customers and create a lasting competitive advantage. And it all starts by mastering the key customers.
A consumer brand company like Procter & Gamble (P&G) defines “Constructive Disruption” as: a willingness to change, adapt, and create new trends and technologies that will shape our industry for the future. According to P&G, it moves around four pillars: lean innovation, brand building, supply chain, and digitalization & data analytics.
That is a process that requires a continuous feedback loop to develop a valuable product and build a viable business model. Continuous innovation is a mindset where products and services are designed and delivered to tune them around the customers’ problem and not the technical solution of its founders.
A design sprint is a proven five-day process where critical business questions are answered through speedy design and prototyping, focusing on the end-user. A design sprint starts with a weekly challenge that should finish with a prototype, test at the end, and therefore a lesson learned to be iterated.
Tim Brown, Executive Chair of IDEO, defined design thinking as “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” Therefore, desirability, feasibility, and viability are balanced to solve critical problems.
DevOps refers to a series of practices performed to perform automated software development processes. It is a conjugation of the term “development” and “operations” to emphasize how functions integrate across IT teams. DevOps strategies promote seamless building, testing, and deployment of products. It aims to bridge a gap between development and operations teams to streamline the development altogether.
Product discovery is a critical part of agile methodologies, as its aim is to ensure that products customers love are built. Product discovery involves learning through a raft of methods, including design thinking, lean start-up, and A/B testing to name a few. Dual Track Agile is an agile methodology containing two separate tracks: the “discovery” track and the “delivery” track.
Feature-Driven Development is a pragmatic software process that is client and architecture-centric. Feature-Driven Development (FDD) is an agile software development model that organizes workflow according to which features need to be developed next.
eXtreme Programming was developed in the late 1990s by Ken Beck, Ron Jeffries, and Ward Cunningham. During this time, the trio was working on the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation System (C3) to help manage the company payroll system. eXtreme Programming (XP) is a software development methodology. It is designed to improve software quality and the ability of software to adapt to changing customer needs.
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An innovation funnel is a tool or process ensuring only the best ideas are executed. In a metaphorical sense, the funnel screens innovative ideas for viability so that only the best products, processes, or business models are launched to the market. An innovation funnel provides a framework for the screening and testing of innovative ideas for viability.
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The innovation loop is a methodology/framework derived from the Bell Labs, which produced innovation at scale throughout the 20th century. They learned how to leverage a hybrid innovation management model based on science, invention, engineering, and manufacturing at scale. By leveraging individual genius, creativity, and small/large groups.
The Agile methodology has been primarily thought of for software development (and other business disciplines have also adopted it). Lean thinking is a process improvement technique where teams prioritize the value streams to improve it continuously. Both methodologies look at the customer as the key driver to improvement and waste reduction. Both methodologies look at improvement as something continuous.
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As the name suggests, TDD is a test-driven technique for delivering high-quality software rapidly and sustainably. It is an iterative approach based on the idea that a failing test should be written before any code for a feature or function is written. Test-Driven Development (TDD) is an approach to software development that relies on very short development cycles.
Timeboxing is a simple yet powerful time-management technique for improving productivity. Timeboxing describes the process of proactively scheduling a block of time to spend on a task in the future. It was first described by author James Martin in a book about agile software development.
Scrum is a methodology co-created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland for effective team collaboration on complex products. Scrum was primarily thought for software development projects to deliver new software capability every 2-4 weeks. It is a sub-group of agile also used in project management to improve startups’ productivity.
Scrumban is a project management framework that is a hybrid of two popular agile methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. Scrumban is a popular approach to helping businesses focus on the right strategic tasks while simultaneously strengthening their processes.
Scrum anti-patterns describe any attractive, easy-to-implement solution that ultimately makes a problem worse. Therefore, these are the practice not to follow to prevent issues from emerging. Some classic examples of scrum anti-patterns comprise absent product owners, pre-assigned tickets (making individuals work in isolation), and discounting retrospectives (where review meetings are not useful to really make improvements).
Scrum at Scale (Scrum@Scale) is a framework that Scrum teams use to address complex problems and deliver high-value products. Scrum at Scale was created through a joint venture between the Scrum Alliance and Scrum Inc. The joint venture was overseen by Jeff Sutherland, a co-creator of Scrum and one of the principal authors of the Agile Manifesto.
Stretch objectives describe any task an agile team plans to complete without expressly committing to do so. Teams incorporate stretch objectives during a Sprint or Program Increment (PI) as part of Scaled Agile. They are used when the agile team is unsure of its capacity to attain an objective. Therefore, stretch objectives are instead outcomes that, while extremely desirable, are not the difference between the success or failure of each sprint.
The waterfall model was first described by Herbert D. Benington in 1956 during a presentation about the software used in radar imaging during the Cold War. Since there were no knowledge-based, creative software development strategies at the time, the waterfall method became standard practice. The waterfall model is a linear and sequential project management framework.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
