Re: emergent properties and "definition"

On Monday, Dec 30, 2002, at 09:12 America/Detroit, Ron Jeffries wrote:

> These ideas make me think that XP (and possibly every "team" activity) 
> may in
> fact be best characterized by expressing simple rules of individual 
> operation
> and of interaction, and that the "Thing That Is XP" may be an emergent 
> property
> of those simple rules.

Yes. I like that a great deal. The perennial "What is XP?" question 
does seem to be best-answered this way. But is it the most satisfying 
answer? The most useful?

Let's try a little experiment: If "the thing that is XP" is what comes 
about when you have done all the practices, what is the thing that 
comes about when you do some other practices?

> Is that interesting? I think it might be ...

I think it might be, too. One reason is that complex systems research, 
aside from being an interesting and potentially useful field of 
academic endeavor, is still gaining ground among Management Consultants 
and their dupe^H^H^H clients.

Another perhaps better reason is that it seems to be a description of 
team dynamics, not team practices. There are XP practices, but XP is 
what happens when you do them.

Regards,
Tozier
-----
Bill Tozier
[email protected]

"It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations."
   -- Winston Churchill


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