Re[2]: The Cost of Change Curve

Wednesday, March 31, 2004, 11:04:36 PM, Robert C. Martin wrote:

> Some folks have said that XP flattens the curve.  I don't think that's true.
> I think that whatever flattening has taken place has been because of things
> that are outside of XP's control.  I think XP works *because* of this
> flattening; I don't think XP causes the flattening.

> What agency might have caused the flattening?  Consider:

> The cost of change curve was measured by Boehm thirty years ago.  Since that
> time:
>   * Computers are 1000 time faster.
>   * Computers have 1000 times as much iternal storage.
>   * Computers have 1000 times as much external storage.
>   * Computers are 1000 times smaller by volume

> That's 12 (count them: TWELVE) orders of magnitude difference; and if we
> looked we could probably find three or four more.  What difference do these
> twelve zeros make?

> I don't have to wait overnight to compile a 1000 line program; instead I can
> run hundreds of compiles every day.

> Every developer can have one or more of these 1,000,000,000X machines for
> their own private use instead of sharing it with the whole department.

> These powerful machines support *tools* that help you edit your code,
> refactor your code, compile your code, test your code, package your code,
> deploy your code.

And XP and the other Agile approaches take advantage of these
environmental changes. It's, at least partly, a case of the
difference between a "culture of plenty" and a "culture of
scarcity". In our culture of plenty we tend to do things much
differently.

Therefore, I think I agree with Uncle Bob, that flattening the
change curve is the result of the practices we do. But the
practices wouldn't have been possible 30 years ago.

-- 

 Doug Swartz
 daswartz <at> prodigy.net

To Post a message, send it to:   extremeprogramming <at> eGroups.com

To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: extremeprogramming-unsubscribe <at> eGroups.com

ad-free courtesy of objectmentor.com 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extremeprogramming/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     extremeprogramming-unsubscribe <at> yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/