More discussion about MS and agile methodologies

This post is a  retort to this: http://geekswithblogs.net/jglynn/archive/2004/05/10/4751.aspx 

 

Jay hopes that my comments about adopting XP at Microsoft will never be heard.

 

My answer to that would be hopefully never. In his post, Roy ponders how the XP process would work on projects as large and vast as what Microsoft produces. Is he really serious? Can something like Word be developed using XP?  I can't possibly see how.

 

Well, Jay , XP has worked on a very large project over at Chrysler a few years back (many years back actually).

There's no reason to think that due process will not lead to success on even bigger ones. It's been working on many a projects around the world and for the past couple of years has been gaining more and more recognition as something that's definitely worth looking at and learning from. I myself have found that even taking *some* of the concepts it uses provides for huge benefits.

And you know what? I'm sure MS is doing Unit testing somewhere behind the iron curtain. Granted, it's not as “evolved” yet, but its definitely something every good developer will want to know about. And MS is filled with those.

 

More from Jay:

 

Microsoft needs to stay out of this area. They are best suited at making tools.

 

Making tools? how about Operating systems? programming languages?

 

I think it would become very difficult if Microsoft started shoving processes down my throat.

 

What have you been programming with so far in your N-tier applications? a few words: DNA, MSF, and parts of those are all in most of the development methodologies and architectures existing today. Like it or not.

 

And heaven forbid that they should start tieing features of the tools with processes.

 

Hardly. Tyeing in and facilitating certain abilities are two separate things. You won't have to do XP on Whidbey, but you could much easier than in previous versions.