Article:		An Introduction to Extreme Programming
Subject:		Why "Extreme" ???
Date:		2001-05-06 13:40:08
From:		jim_warlock
Excellent article, etc. you know :) To get to the point... I've been involved in software projects (throughout my years in university) for some time now and I've always been taught that the best way to deal with projects is using the approach you write about... The Uni. is the client in this case and you start up with a vague idea of what your product is going to be... so you make up a start-up plan (a sort of mock-up design) and then as you go along you refine it, add features to it and even redirect the original plans to other areas... but i'm still not making my point am I? :) well I don't quite see how this classifies as eXtreme programming...could you please clarify? -- Dimitrios "Jinx" Psychogios MSc. Data Comms. & Networks University of Hertfordshire D.Psychogios@herts.ac.uk

Showing messages 1 through 1 of 1.

• Why "Extreme" ???
  2001-05-07 11:09:57  chromatic | [Reply | View]
  
  
  As I understand it, Kent Beck chose the word "Extreme" to convey the idea of turning all of the knobs to 11. Instead of using a design-code-test-debug-build-ship approach that takes each step in order, XP says to design continually, test continually, build continually, review continually, ship early and often.
  
  It's extreme because it advocates doing all of the good activities of software engineering as much and as often as possible.
  
  (On the other hand, if you mean the article simplifies things, you're absolutely right. The real world's too complex to cover everything in 500 words. There are still plenty of things to learn from XP, even if you find it's not appropriate in your situation. :)