XP doesn't seem to map well onto traditional hierarchical development structures. For example:
- The concepts of "team lead" and "project lead" seem to disappear. Replacing several leads with one coach isn't a good idea because the coach becomes a bottleneck, but hiring a non-XP lead and telling them to be a coach is a sure recipe for process deviations. XP coaching is the hardest part of the process, not something to sling at people who "already know how to do it". And experienced XP coaches are rare as hen's teeth.
- There's a very hard philosophical tension between XP and CMM-fans. We can describe XP as CMM-lite all we like, but that doesn't mean the paper-pushers are going to accept it. I've had a couple of very excellent and experienced developers look me dead in the eye and say, "these UserStories are just great. As soon as we get them turned into a requirements doc and a detailed design we'll really have something".
- Are there any CMM pages on wiki? Thanks, looking for more info on what exactly it is.
- TheCoach can't be management. This means that if a significant manager - even one in marketing - decides they won't give up the IllusionOfControl that comes from piles of paper, someone has to generate that paper. If you have senior developers only too anxious to make paper, and managers only too anxious to own paper, process subversion becomes a real risk. The fact is most managers strongly prefer the IllusionOfControl to sitting on their hands and watching deliverables roll out. Sitting on their hands makes them feel unnecessary and unloved.
What can be done about this?
Whatever can be done can only be done slowly perhaps. The key point affecting the speed of change: TheCoachCannotBeManagement?
I'd say it's going to take time for the authority of XP coach to be established across a large number of existing companies. The fast moving DotComs? should give a lead in this, I would hope, so increasing the rate of change. But please excuse me now as I pop off to see whether I can execute a complex swap of my last week's highly rated basket of Nasdaq stocks for a small basket of groceries this week.
-- RichardDrake
Xp And Hierarchies