XP Installed- Chapter 19-21

Bugs happen, schedules slip, no need to over react.

XP Installed, Ron Jeffries; Ann Anderson; Chet Hendrickson

Summary
Today's XP reading is ostensibly on steering. Steering go-carts, iterations, and releases. Primarily it says that "Steering feels good", "Estimation and Steering go hand in hand", "Estimation is important". It feels like a retreading, again, of the chapter(s) on estimation, delving into the role of the person that keeps track of how poorly the team is performing. 


Discussion

1. Why is this paper interesting or significant?

It discusses some empirical evidence for what does and doesn't work for tracking, including "the exercise is kind of useless if the folk aren't honest, so the tracker needs to be non-intimidating"; mentioning the people issues is a rather important step. 

2. What are the faults of this work?

I feel like it puts too much emphasis on reaction to slipped estimates... "OHH DEAR GOD!!! YOU'RE GOING TO BE 30 MINUTES LATE? THE HORROR!!! WE MUST GET OUR BEST MINDS HERE TO FIGURE THIS OUT!" It feels like a violation of the "estimates are just estimates" principle, and the reaction seems like something that's inherently threatening/intimidating. Sure, at some point someone should ask "would you like an extra set of eyes?", but to make it SOP is going to far. So says I.

3. What is the possible future work extending from this work?

I shall steer our project to the moon, hit the stars, and then lacking sufficient thrust to escape the gravity well our project shall splatter impressively into either a star or the ground, whichever comes first.