Ten geezerhood ago, when I was an R&D Team Leader next to VISA, we had a extremely structured code stirring process!
Everytime a new faculty or point had to be developed, we would go finished this selfsame manoeuvre -
Marketing would start off an MRD (Marketing Requirements Document). Typically a 10-20 pages document, outlining what commercialism requirements to see, with a few sketches of how they would like the property to manual labour.
My job as the R&D Team Leader was to evaluation the papers near the merchandising department's wares officer and in roll generate a new written material entitled FRS (Functional Requirement Specification). The FRS delineated the exact record and carrying out to mouth the coveted functionality.
I would congregate beside every sui generis engineer, assessment the FRS and minister to them jot yet other text that describes the unit design verbal description and unit carrying out tests. While fostering was in progress, our in-house QA (Quality Assurance) division would infuse two sets of documents for whitebox and blackbox testing.
We would emancipation a new make both 3 months and the unbind act up to his neck several otherwise documents and steps, all accommodatingly designed to minimise mistakes.
Everybody (aside of the QA empire) despised this group. For several intention QA cherished it. Said it makes their job easier. But because it took so semipermanent to get a new characteristic to the full developed, tried and deployed, recurrently we would insight ourselves deploying a feature/functionality that is no long enforced. We incomprehensible the window of opportunity, the patron went distant or Marketing changed their psyche.
This was all rear in 1997.
Today everything has varied. Time to marketplace. Time to monetary system. Increasing tempo of transfer in the online international all gave start to Web 2.0. Ajax. And a new software system fostering methodology attitude titled Extreme Programming.
At we no longest indite 5 documents to get a new side deployed. We no long pause for blackbox and whitebox green-light from QA up to that time going on stage. And we no longest do without the frame of opportunity.
Extreme Programming is in working condition so economically for us that we came up near a lurid "5% commendation for all distinct day we're late" penalization set-up when treatment beside clients. Yikes! My old owner would monster out backbone in the years of 1997 where on earth every spinster jut out over was preordained to be in arrears and calculation new developers to an previously belatedly undertaking righteous made it an even bigger catastrophe.
So what is all about?
In stout it method writing at the hurry of thought. Whenever something of necessity to get done, we interruption it downcast to the least units researchable (OOP), use existing objects whenever possible, prompt unit of measurement testing and on to the crop server.
A separate text describes what needs to be done and the activity is imperfect downcast to individual engineer, all accountable on secret writing and deploying their part of a set of the hang over.
Initially this sounds similar to disarray or a instruction for disaster, still past the art of undue programming is mastered, the end conclusion is fast web 2.0 applications launched in weeks as anti to months/years.
Extreme Programming is active lead communication with the customer, it's almost fast changes with minute spreading to amount produced state of affairs. It's about purely getting holding done, with no added bureaucracy and no spare stairs.
For us - we unrecorded and breathe XP and we'll never go rearmost.