TEAM Zarate Tarrani Notes From the Field

eXtreme Programming, RUP & Refactoring. I just finished reading a short paper titled LIPE: A Lightweight Process for E-Business Startup Companies based on Extreme Programming, which is one of the more sensible approaches to blending development processes with business realities that I've read in a long time.

In my opinion XP (eXtreme Programming) is a viable way to quickly implement applications to meet business requirements. I am not comfortable with the way XP treats design documentation, and certainly do not believe that large-scale systems should be built using XP. However, for iterative projects designed to quickly deploy systems and applications to achieve business competitive advantage, it is sound and effective. In many ways it's a mini-RUP (Rational Unified Process). As an aside, if you're interested in the RUP I have a set of presentations in PowerPoint format that gives a complete picture of the basics.

William Wake's Software Design and Development page is a starting point for XP information because it contains links to all of the major web resources, and has additional articles, papers and information that I haven't come across before. His 158-page whitepaper titled XP Explored is an interesting dissertation on both XP and refactoring.

If you're interested in refactoring and patterns (two topics of previous entries here), Joshua Kerievsky's Refactoring to Patterns is a paper any developer will love.

Miscellaneous Short Topics. I love sharing, and today am in a particularly generous mood. Here are some documents and presentations on miscellaneous topics that I rediscovered when I was cleaning up duplicate files:

• Client-Server Response Time - a PowerPoint presentation on measuring response time in a client/server environment. This is a quick refresher for capacity planners and performance analysts.
• Project Quality Assurance - PowerPoint presentation on project-oriented quality with a focus on SQA.
• Risk Management - a PowerPoint presentation on project risk managemet. Also addresses operational risk management.
• Software Inspections - policies and procedures in MS Word format that will kickstart implementing inspections into your organization.

If you don't receive The Data Adminsitration Newsletter you're missing one of the best resources on the web. This newsletter is not just for DBAs - it's for IT professionals in every discipline.

If you're interested in SCM the ACME Project (Assembling Configuration Management Environments) is the web resource to visit. The purpose of the ACME project is to gather together successfully used "best practices" and "lessons learned" for software configuration management (SCM), as well as other useful information about SCM. Brad Appleton, the initiator of the project has, in my opinion, fulfilled the purpose in all respects.

If you're like me you want to thumb through a book before you buy it - and you probably buy many technical books online because bookstores don't carry a large selection of technical and business books these days (at least not the interesting ones). BRINT Books-to-Click has a large number of full titles online that you can read for free. Reading online is not the same as reading words on a printed page, but you'll know what's in a book before you buy it.

Ending Note: I dug up an old graphic that Linda and I did ages ago titled Life Cycle in a Nutshell. It somehow fits with the theme of this entry, so I thought I'd share it.