Comparison of Extreme Programming (XP) to Traditional Programming Methodologies
The comparison of extreme programming (XP) to traditional programming methodologies can find similarities between the historic biblical battle between David and Goliath. Goliath of Gath is a Philistine warrior renowned for his size, strength and battle tested skills. Much like Goliath, traditional methodologies are known to be cumbersome due to large amounts of documentation, and time consuming do to the time needed to gather all the information. However, traditional methodologies have been widely accepted by the software development community for years because of its attention to detail regarding project development and maintenance.
David is a male Israelite teenager, who was small, fearless, and untrained in any type of formal combat. In a similar fashion, extreme programming focuses more on code over documentation so that time is spent on developing the project and not on cumbersome documentation of a project. Typically, project managers and developers are fearless when they start this type of project because they usually start with little to no documentation, and they expect to be given changes to be implemented at the start of every new project iteration. Because of the lack of need or desire for documentation in extreme programming projects they appear to act as if there is no formal process involved in developing an extreme programming project. This is a misnomer, because of the consistent development iterations and interaction with clients and users the quickly takes form because each iteration allows the project to be refined as the customer needs and desires change.
Ravikant Agarwal and David Umphress documented a new approach to extreme programming called personal extreme programming (PXP) at the ACM Southeast Regional Conference in 2008. PXP is the application of extreme programming core concepts in a single developer team environment. PXP focuses on how to adjust the main concepts and practices of extreme programming that is typically centered in a group environment and how they can be altered to be beneficial for a single developer environment.
Suzanne Smith and Sara Stoecklin are both advocates of extreme programming according to the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges and in fact they feel that it should receive more attention in introductory programming classes to allow students to better understand the software development process.
Reasons why extreme programming is a good thing:
Developers get to do more of what they love, Develop. Traditional software development methodologies tend to add additional demands on a project by requiring all requirements and project specifications to be fully defined prior to the start of the implementation phase of a project.
A standard 40 hour work week. With limiting the work week to only 40 hours prevents developers from getting burned out on projects.
