Re: Extreme Programming Frightens This Perl Programmer

[tlynch001]

'Extreme' is overused, and it really doesn't express the idea behind this style of software development.

The goal is to reduce costs involved with software development. One interesting fact is that the sooner you catch mistakes, the less it costs to fix them (compare the cost of fixing a mistake the minute you make it vs. after you've already shipped the product). So that's one reason to team developers up.

Another very important reasons to partner up is so everyone knows what each other is working on. You see, you change partners daily. If a programmer leaves, you don't have to spend time trying to figure out what he was doing and get the new guy up to speed.

No one knows if extreme programming is the next great thing. More research has to be done. Software development is still a new and exciting field (at least I think so). There's a lot of interesting ideas behind extreme programming. Too bad the name turns so many people off. 'Extreme' is such a 90's term anyway.

Now I'm babbling...

-tl