In the fall of 1999 I got the biggest productivity boost of my entire career as a software developer. In the October issue of IEEE Computer magazine, there was an article by Kent Beck called “Embracing change with extreme programming”. In it, he outlined Extreme Programming (XP), which includes much of what we now refer to as agile development.
By then, I had been working as a software developer for seven years. The standard development methodology at that time was waterfall: document-heavy year-long projects, frozen requirements, change control boards, manual testing at the end of the project, and so on. Software development succeeded despite the methodology, not because of it. Reading the article was a real eye-opener. I felt it was describing how I naturally worked – in short cycles, with fast feedback, and frequent redesigns.
(And yes, I meant to write this last fall for the 20th anniversary, but I didn’t get around to it then. But hey, better late than never, even if the title has 20.5 in it now)
