Re: "I've tried it" doesn't instill interest

So said  Bill Tozier  on  2003-01-10 --------------------

>2. Are you sure you've identified all of the implications of doing your 
>work better?

Of course not. I don't understand the point of the question.

>Are you sure you've identified the criteria by which your 
>audience is gaging success?

Obviously not. That's ridiculously complex. No one could do it, so why would I try?

>I'm involved in a consulting project right now (in the manufacturing 
>sector, not software) that is being sold by my direct customer inside 
>her company as, "A system for automating and offloading much of the 
>repetitive and time-consuming engineering design process, freeing up 
>designers to spend more time on what's important." A colleague, who has 
>done his time as a design engineer, asked me, "What makes you think I 
>don't *want* to spend all day running a few long, complicated programs? 
>And playing solitaire or surfing while they run?"

After a while, that's boring, for varying definitions of "while".

>Among other things, XP demands a high degree of social interaction, 
>engagement, and progress from all involved. There is no lengthy (but 
>ultimately relaxing) analysis and specification phase up front, no long 
>hiatus in the development cycle while QA has ahold of the code, no 
>week-long group progress meetings where each of 50 people has 10-30 
>minutes to speak about how things are going on their aspect of the 
>project, and in general no time to kick back in your cubicle and play 
>at being Larry from Dilbert.

This sounds like "XP doesn't allow me to relax." XP allows me to spend a predictable amount of time doing work so that I can use the remaining time as I choose. Why isn't that relaxing?

If the team and the customer want to take a week off, why wouldn't they? In that case, take the week off -- don't disguise it as training, or meetings, or what have you. Nowhere in the XP literature does it say, "Work hard all the time and never relax."

>In other words, you and your audience may have the same goals, but 
>different values.

Indeed. I want to be honest.


J. B. Rainsberger,
President, Diaspar Software Services
Let's write software that people understand.
http://www.diasparsoftware.com/
telephone: +1 416 791-8603
All correspondence (c) 2002 Diaspar Software Services.
If you want to use it, just ask; don't steal.


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