Extreme Zone

The ExtremeZone is where you are and what you feel when various aspects of ExtremeProgramming "click" for you in your very breath and sinew and soul. It is a calming, but orgasmically euphoric and addictive feeling of inner peace and awareness, as well as a sense of confidence and accomplishment of a job well done, and that your "part" is well aligned with the "whole."

The ExtremeZone is where you visit when you're in a state of ExtremeFlow; and it's where you arrive when you know the code is in ExtremeNormalForm.

Disclaimer: I am not an XPert! RonJeffries has been telling me that he suspects I know more about XP than I realize, based upon my XP-ish experiences with various subsets of the ExtremeProgramming practices over the years. This is merely my attempt to flesh them out a bit, and see if the XPerts feel it "meshes" with what they do.

--BradAppleton

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If you figure out how to get the orgasmic thing going, send me a priority email right away.

How much are you willing to pay for it? :-) :-)

This is a good description of the feeling. I would suggest that you concentrate now on the specific actions one should DO to get to the zone. Hang in! --RonJeffries

I don't think there is a single unique path to the zone, nor any single unique circumstance or set of steps that brings about the corresponding feeling. IMHO, ExtremeFlow is one possible way; ExtremeNormalForm is another. It's probably a lot harder to stay there than to get there. I don't know the secret for staying there. But as far as getting there, I'd like to hear others' ideas of what practices they do that makes them feel they are in the ExtremeZone. What about tests or stories or CRC-cards or refactoring? Does anyone get that feeling after doing any of those?

I think the key is when you feel you and/or the code (or architecture) is "in alignment" or "in tune with" (deeply connected to) some other important structure or individual. Other XP pages talk about things "clicking" or "falling into place", which again suggests some kind of harmonious alignment of two or more things.

Somewhere underneath, I think achieving this harmonious alignment is predicated upon effective communication about the things to be aligned, and/or between the people responsible for aligning them.

I suspect that XPerts who are also Aikidoka would probably prefer the title ExtremeHarmony to ExtremeAlignment (see ExtremeHarmony for more details). However, my personal preference is for ExtremeAlignment because I think it more expressly connotes some kind of structure or geometry that we can attempt to visibly perceive if we view it from the right perspective. Lets see if we can figure out which things are being aligned by which XP practices in ExtremeAlignment.

--BradAppleton

[Comments moved to ExtremeHarmony and ExtremeAlignment]