In an agile environment, XP practices are used primarily to provide a framework for the development of a product with a goal of producing incrementally better working software. This is done through a series of cycles consisting of planning, design, and coding stages. As the cycles progress, changes can be more quickly implemented as they arise without having to go through formal project management processes. This allows for greater speed and flexibility in responding to changing market needs and conditions.
XP practices are techniques that developers can use to keep programs running smoothly. The process includes the following steps: analyzing the code, halting any routine behaviors, analyzing the program state, and making changes to either the code or an existing data structure so that it can be properly run.
XP Core Practices are a set of practices that the XP methodology prescribes to be followed. They are a key pillar to the success of a project. The 10 core practices include:Suppose you’re working on an XP-based re-design of your company’s home page and want to find out about setting up an automated build system for it. You search online and find out that one of the XP Core Practices is Continuous Integration (CI).
There are several practices that companies employ in order to be more efficient, but they do not all use the same practices. One example of this is where some companies implement a continuous improvement plan in their operations, while others form teams to streamline their process and improve quality.
According to Rumberger and James, “a process improvement (PI) is any adjustment in an organization’s processes that produces a permanent, measurable change in the performance of those processes” (2003). Process improvement can involve a variety of techniques including benchmarking, kaizen events, and Six Sigma. In Six Sigma the DMAIC methodology is typically used to identify root causes of problems and to implement process improvements.
Extreme programming (XP) is an Agile software development practice that emphasizes the importance of customer collaboration. The three practices are Test-driven development, Refactoring, and Pair programming. Tests are created first before any coding because it provides a logical contract with the customer that guarantees that what you’re about to write will behave as expected. Refactoring is the process of improving code without altering its external behavior, which can be done at any time, even after the project has been deployed.
The most commonly cited best practices for Scrum are:Forming cross-functional teams of 5-8 members that represent the different disciplines comprising the application under development, with each team member performing the same functions.When developing new software, planning and organizing work into small increments, called “sprints.”Planning just enough work to complete in the next one to four weeks.
Scrum and XP are the two most well-known agile software development methods. Scrum is an iterative and incremental framework for managing software projects. Scrum’s three pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation create agile teams who can respond to inevitable change, while still delivering ongoing value. The flexibility of Scrum allows product owners to deliver more business value with less risk than traditional methods like waterfall or ad hoc programming.
AUTHORS: Refactoring is the process of improving the design of an existing code base. It can be applied to individual units, classes and modules and it often involves restructuring and reorganizing code without changing its functionality. This involves breaking down a large problem into smaller, more manageable pieces. Refactoring changes the structure of the code, not its logic.
Software development is an unpredictable process. It is not possible to predict the rate of change of all software projects. All developers encounter impediments that can cause delays, or new requirements that can change the deliverable. To deal with the uncertainty, XP advocates a set of core practices during development to help ensure on-time delivery. One core practice is collective ownership, where team members are encouraged to collaborate and share responsibility for every part of the product.
