Chicken Soup and Other Recipes

Each time we think about a lightweight methodology, we somehow have in mind the idea that we do not have to follow any bureaucracy: We can just have fun and tell the boss to get lost.

In XP there is a process to follow, but … the common understanding of it is that such a process is more likely to be like the rules for playing soccer just a way to have more fun in the game. Have you ever tried to play a serious soccer game without rules? I am sure that in the end, there was not much fun.

A big part of the rules for soccer concerns timing and measurement: the duration of the two halves, determining when players are offside, and counting the goals. Similarly, measuring helps improve several aspects of the software development process, including:

• Controlling

• Estimating

• Identifying best practices

• Performing postmortem analysis

Measurement also has managerial value. It helps in understanding how the effort is spent, what products and by-products are generated, and the speed at which the software is being developed. All these are essential parts of XP.

So the point is how we can measure in a lightweight way so that measuring does not become the Trojan horse of our heavyweight friends.