Agile project management with XP Manual

MANUAL GESTIÓN DE PROYECTOS ÁGILES

7. Good technical practices in XP

As we have seen before, one of the main differences between XP and other methodologies such as Scrum is that in XP the main weight is on the development team and the good technical practices that are recommended. Below is a list of the good technical practices that XP proposes to achieve quality software frequently and at a predictable cost:

• The team must be together • The team as a unit • Uses information radiators on project progress • Work reasonable hours to be productive • Plan using user stories • Margin in planning (Slack) • The weekly cycle and the quarterly cycle.

• Peer-to-peer programme • Test-driven programming • Construction in 10 minutes • Continuous integration • Emerging design

Some of these practices are more general project and team management issues, while others are more particular to software development, more technical (marked with in the list above). The more general practices will be described below.

The team must be together According to the XP methodology, development improves if it takes place in an open space large enough for the whole team to be together. One of the keys to the success of a project is communication between its members and the feeling of teamwork. And this is largely achieved by developing together. And it is not only about programming in pairs, as we will see later, but rather about developing in a shared space. The Spanish proverb is clear: "el roce hace el cariño" (rubbing makes love). In my personal experience, working in the same room has been very important to achieve the objectives of the project. Talking to colleagues, we all realised the importance of being together. This is not to say that working together in the same room is a prerequisite for developing quality software, but simply that it is a practice that has been proven to help achieve the project's objectives. European Open Business School

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