Re: Digest Number 130

Mike Johnson wrote:
> I'm not sure what to talk about here that we don't already talk about on
> 
>  >extremeprogramming.
>  >
>  >I'm very bad at pushing for/encouraging/cultivating XP adoption. Is
>  >anyone here good at it? Will someone just do it for me? I'll pay.
>  >
>  >Come to Toronto and make all these people understand how great XP is and
>  >that they should let me put together a team of people and do XP to make
>  >great things happen for their company. I'll give you a cut of revenue.
>  >
>  >I'm not sure whether I'm joking.
> 
> You mentioned not wanting to convince people of using XP techniques...
> who exactly? By the look of your website you seem pretty involved in the
> whole deal.

If I did, then I misspoke. I am not /good/ at convincing people to use 
XP. I have recognized that I'm not good at it and, as a result, have 
stopped trying. I'll leave it to other, more capable people. The problem 
is, I don't know any such person here in the city.

> When I have run into the issue, its not that management doesn't want to
> do it.. its that they don't understand why they should do it, and need
> to have some exercises or interviews geared to the style... literally go
> ahead and include them in the process - just don't tell them you're
> doing it.

That's fine for the programming practices, but for the planning 
practices -- and especially when negotiating a contract with a client, 
trying to get them to sign a /variable-scope/ or /variable-time/ 
agreement. So far, either they've been willing or they haven't.

> I've busted out a stack of blank notecards and said "Ok.. lets boil this
> down to something I can show you after lunch"... I've set up my Qtest
> stuff to dump to a URL before, so that they can "check the website" for
> progress.

I've not been successful so far with the whole "I'll just do it, be 
successful, then they'll ask why" approach. I think that's been an 
organizational problem, though: I've done it in the wrong places.

> hmm... Maybe what every XP firm needs is hiring a secretary. Secretaries
> are not always expensive, and you could literally train one to run the
> process. People like to be interviewed. They want you to do the
> writing.  They would love to have someone who could come in and hand
> them a list of tests point out the weak areas, and ask questions, and
> write answers. No programming involved... just someone who likes to be
> organized and knows the method.
> 
> Not really a secretary, somewhere between a "program manager" and a
> secretary. A peer in the group instead of a boss. liason.

I'm not sure I understand this... care to make it more concrete?
-- 
J. B. Rainsberger,
Diaspar Software Services
http://www.diasparsoftware.com :: +1 416 791-8603
Let's write software that people understand


 

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