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Here’s the third of four podcasts on agile software development. The first - an overview on agile - is available here and the second - a survey of methodologies - is here. This 37-minute podcast focuses on the best known - and most controversial - of the methodologies: Extreme Programming.

Show Notes:

• About embracing change, a rapid departure from plan-and-build.

• So don’t just tweak traditional processes … reinvent them.

• Four core values:
  • Feedback
  • Communication
  • Simplicity
  • Courage
• Twelve practices:
  • The Planning Process. Elicitation by negotiation and ongoing discussion; specification by index cards rather than exhaustive documents.
  • Small Releases. 1-4 week iterations.
  • Simple Design. Minimalist approach. Simple, not stupid. Once and once only. "You Ain’t Gonna Need It".
  • Metaphor. Cohesive design.
  • Testing. JUnit.
  • Refactoring. "Refactor mercilessly."
  • Pair Programming. Constant review improves design and testing, enables collective ownership.
  • Collective Ownership. Keeps tacit knowledge spread across team, supports refactoring and ongoing design improvement, acts as contingency against staff departure.
  • Continuous Integration. Ensures code can change quickly, keeps developers’ attention on adding business value rather than micro-managing infrastructure.
  • On-Site Customer. Allows tacit requirements.
  • Coding Standard. Supports collective ownership.
  • **40-hour Week. ** "Sustainable Pace"
• Origins:
  • C3 project
  • Smalltalk and unit testing
  • Design patterns
• Stayed tuned for the next podcast, the final in this Agile Software Riffcast series: The Dark Side of Agile.

Thanks again to My Morning Jacket for the sample used in the lead-in track.