Extreme Programming Installed Ch 19-21

Reference Information:

Title: Extreme Programming Installed

Author: Ron Jeffries, Ann Anderson, Chet Hendrickson

Editor: Addison-Wesley Professional, October 2000

Summary:

Chapter 19 - Steering

Before starting the XP project, managers plan the direction in which the project should proceed and the milestones that need to be met. This chapter talks about steering the project in the intended direction in order to meet the milestones. Some stories take more time to implement than it was previously estimated while some stories take less time than estimated. This demands for rearranging and splitting the stories in order to make them fit in the iteration.

Chapter 20 - Steering the interaction

This chapter focuses on steering the iteration in the right direction. The goal of each iteration is to complete the stories within that iteration. We need to constantly track the progress and improve the estimates. Sometimes, resources need to be reallocated to steer the project in the right direction. A person is assigned to track the progress of the project. If a team comes to a standstill, the tracker gives them some time to fix the issue, otherwise, he/she goes to the customer for ideas or possible solutions.

Chapter 21 - Steering the release

In this phase, the team is almost done with implementation and testing. This when the managers need to plan the release. This is when the managers need to decide when and what to release. How well the code is working, what has been accomplished and what needs to be deferred.

Discussion:

These three chapters were very similar, the only difference being that Ch. 19 is very general while chapter 21 and 22 get into the specifics. Authors did a great job in convincing the reader the importance of steering the project. However, assigning one person just for tracking the progress is probably not how it works in the industry. This task is usually performed by the program manager, who is also responsible to hold meetings, meet with customers and understand their needs and convey the customer needs to the technical team. Overall, these were great chapter that provided meaningful insight into the XP process.