Fri, 21 Apr 2006

XP doesn't stand for XPlanner

My current client (Retail X) and my former client (Bank Y) both use XPlanner to manage their XP processes. If one must store stories electronically, then XPlanner seems to be the most stable free software around to do that, so thank you XPlanner developers for your work. One aspect of process management software is that it (inevitably?) embodies the opinions of its creators. Is process management software inherently opinionated software? While opinionated software is not bad, it does expose differences of opinions between users and creators, and this is where I find myself with XPlanner.

Bank Y began adopting XP prior to using XPlanner, and I think this gave them an advantage over Retail X. Bank Y had established its XP process through researching XP, hiring ThoughtWorks to lead the effort, and adapting it via iteration and project retrospectives. When the need arose for story tracking from remote locations, XPlanner was installed and we used it in the best way we could. Which meant we ignored/hijacked some of the ways it tried to make us work. For instance, it wants us to estimate in hours, but we used days. It wants us to track actual time spent, but we never did.

I could be wrong, but my new client, Retail X, seems to have started doing XP by installing XPlanner and giving it what it wanted. Velocity is tracked by using actual time and estimates are in hours. Basically, the process has conformed to the opinion of XPlanner. Guess what? It doesn't quite fit right. I'm reminded of one of my favorite Cockburn quotes:

If you follow a methodology out of the box, you will have one that fits some project in the world, but probably not yours. --Agile Software Development, Alistair Cockburn

If you're going to use software to manage your software development process, realize that you're going to run into differences of opinion. I hope that Desi, Obie and Aslak can continue their work in this area, because I know our opinions about XP are well aligned.

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