Monday, February 07, 2005

Taking another tack

I'm a big fan of XP, the programming methodology. But I sometimes have difficulty spreading my enthusiasm at work. XP can be offputting to the uninitiated, and its advocates are at times boat-rockers. So I'm looking at other ways to spread agile methodologies than just XP.

Looking over my shelf I spy Applying UML and Patterns by Craig Larman, something I picked up while at ThoughtWorks, but never got very far into (too many good books to read!). Larman introduces the Unified Process or just UP. At first I was wary, but as I've been reading his book I see how much XP and UP have in common. More to my problem, UP looks like it would appeal well to process-oriented but open-minded businessmen.

Perhaps, then, I should consider changing tack, and point out UP resources to my coworkers. Taking up UP might be a fine way to promote agile programming, and the UML review[*] in Larman is a big help.

[*] The agile modeling link also has an excellent case study on introducing agile programming into a non-agile environment.

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