Mya’s Reviews > Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change > Status Update

Continuous improvement means continuous awareness, responsiveness to feedback, and openness to improvement

Important activities can become or generate waste if we don't use their output immediately in order to get the feedback we need to eliminate waste

Case study... With Kent Back, Ron Jeffries and Martin Fowler on the team. Wow!

Strong words from a senior VP of an airline - "If programmers won't pair or if they insist on owning code, have the courage to fire them."

Conquer-and-divide rather than divide-and-conquer (large problems). Basis in autonomous teams that work independently (system integrates frequently). Occasional exceptions where teams need to coordinate are managed as exceptions. If too much time spent coordinating, look to how the system can be restructured to support independent teams. Only if this fails is large project mgt overhead appropriate.

100 people can't plan their work in detail in a single weekly meeting. 100 people CAN work together in a spirit of communication, feedback, simplicity, courage and respect.

Design Simplicity = 1) Appropriate for the intended audience (the ppl who need to work with it, understand it); 2) Communicative (system communicates ideas to future readers); 3) Factored (duplication removed); and 4) Minimal (as few elements as possible within the three constraints above)

Database design strategy

Design quality doesn't ensure success, but design failure can ensure failure

Fundamental flaw in the building construction metaphor: it is extremely difficult to reverse progress in the construction world. ... Huge costs in tossing a poured concrete slab; to reverse a day of software you only lose the cost of the day it took to write it.