Extreme Programming - Extreme Programming on a two-people team

Author

Extreme Programming on a two-people team

Christophe Franco

2004-09-09, 8:56 am

Hi,

I am trying to find a way to implement extreme-programming on a very -
very - small development team. In fact, we are only two.

After about 3 months of development, we are facing some organisational
problems, and since the other developer will probably change in a few
w

s (that means, I'm still there, but the other person will be
replaced by somebody else who is quite new on the project), I think it
is time to make a kind of bilan, and to look for ways to improve our
development method.

Therefore, I am looking for other experiences of extreme programming in
a two-people team, I looked for it on the web, bud didn't find much
information. The more I found was in a French book from Bénard and co,
"L'eXtreme Programming - Avec deux études de cas" (eXtreme Programming -
with two case studies). They state that the minimal extreme programming
team should have at least 3 members, a customer and a pair of
programmers, which we don't have. Without the customer being physically
involved in the development process, we are more or less able to use the
"programming" techniques of XP, like pair programming, test driven
development... but not the organisational techniques like progressive
specification, planification...

Do you know of better ways to adapt, if possible, the extreme
programming method to a team like mine, or is there any other agile
method that could better meet our needs ? I've heard of XBreed, which is
a bit like XP but without the customer if I have clearly understood, but
didn't find much to read about it.

Regards,
Christophe

--
Christophe Franco

John Roth

2004-09-09, 8:56 pm

"Christophe Franco" <cfranco@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:1gjuk4h.1gx52a61tru8zeN%cfranco@pobox.com...
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to find a way to implement extreme-programming on a very -
> very - small development team. In fact, we are only two.
>
> After about 3 months of development, we are facing some organisational
> problems, and since the other developer will probably change in a few
> w

s (that means, I'm still there, but the other person will be
> replaced by somebody else who is quite new on the project), I think it
> is time to make a kind of bilan, and to look for ways to improve our
> development method.
>
> Therefore, I am looking for other experiences of extreme programming in
> a two-people team, I looked for it on the web, bud didn't find much
> information. The more I found was in a French book from Bénard and co,
> "L'eXtreme Programming - Avec deux études de cas" (eXtreme Programming -
> with two case studies). They state that the minimal extreme programming
> team should have at least 3 members, a customer and a pair of
> programmers, which we don't have. Without the customer being physically
> involved in the development process, we are more or less able to use the
> "programming" techniques of XP, like pair programming, test driven
> development... but not the organisational techniques like progressive
> specification, planification...

Are you doing automated acceptance tests? That's one of the best
techniques to communicate with an absent customer.

Also, you can do everything except pair program with just one person.
Check Google for XP for One. There are a couple of papers on
doing XP with one person.

John Roth
>
> Regards,
> Christophe
>
> --
> Christophe Franco

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