Archive for April, 1998

April 9, 1998

Categories:
Practices

They’re just rules!

Alistair Cockburn and Kent and I have been chatting via email concerning the eXtreme Programming methodology, and a family of lightweight methods that Alistair is formulating. As part of getting to know each other, we have been accusing the

April 8, 1998

Categories:
Practices

The Four Variables

Scope, Quality, Resources, Time

Projects are often given to developers in terms like these: “Take these four people, and get back here in three months with a perfect program”. The developers ask “What does it have to do,” and are…

April 6, 1998

Categories:
Practices

Do the simplest thing that could possibly work

The most important rule in our development is always to do the simplest thing that could possibly work. Not the most stupid thing, not something that clearly can’t work. But simplicity is the most important contributor to the ability to…

April 5, 1998

Categories:
Practices

Pair Programming

All significant development is done in pairs. We have found that progress is faster, we can work longer without losing headway, and quality is higher. Typically the person types who has the best feel for where the code is going.…

April 4, 1998

Categories:
Practices

Code Ownership

We do not practice code ownership. When the classes for some feature are first developed, only one team will typically work on them, during the one iteration it takes to develop them initially.

freely. Because we release frequently, there are…

April 3, 1998

Categories:
Practices

You’re NOT gonna need it!

Often you will be building some class and you’ll hear yourself saying “We’re going to need…”.

Resist that impulse, every time. Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you need them. Here’s why:…

April 2, 1998

Categories:
Practices

Let Smalltalk Tell You

Here’s another guideline that is very easy to forget, but very important. The general notion is that Smalltalk is very good at incrementally changing things, breakpointing, and checking values. Instead of wasting time thinking about what to do, or theorizing…

Recent Articles

Developer Quality! … and Certification?

Uncle Bob Martin comments on “Developer Certification WTF?” in a recent blog entry. Let’s talk a bit about developer quality, and some things that are being done about it.

Book Review: Shop Class as Soulcraft

Author Matthew B. Crawford is a physicist, has a Ph.D. in political philosophy, and is a motorcycle mechanic. What’s not to like? Recommended for practitioners, managers, executives.

What is really essential?

Jens Meydam asked “What do you really care about in Scrum?” I decided to answer, instead, “What do you think is really essential in Scrum-style software development?