Cincinnati Software Process Improvement Network
  SPIN is a concept of Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University  
May 2004

TOPIC: The Customer/Business Side of XP Programming

Part 2 of 2 will feature: The Customer/Business Side of XP Programming

This month's SPIN program will follow up from April's presentation, that was on the technical side of the XP methodology, by focusing on the customer/ business side of the XP methodology. Mr. Lindstrom will discuss some of the key customer responsibilities including:

He will discuss how the iterative approach to software development can lead to:

due to using short development cycles that allow for rapid feedback, and a greater ability to deal with changes.

By recognizing the evolutionary nature of software development and taking advantage of the XP methodology, many businesses can expect to see and touch the functionality and make important changes as the process moves along. This happens within weeks, compared to traditional methodologies that may not produce something concrete for many months.

We hope to have you in attendance again this month and ask that if you're on the technical side that you bring your managers/directors with you from the business side of your company to learn about XP and decide if this approach to software development may make sense for your company.

 

SPEAKER: Lowell Lindstrom, Object Mentor

Lowell Lindstrom has been professionally involved across of the spectrum of software business for 17 years. He is "the business geek" at Object Mentor and balances professional time between running that business and coaching organizations on the Customer Team skills and practices of software development. He has been involved on the business side of dozens of XP software projects in organizations of all sizes and varying domains. Lowell's background includes many years of software development and management, organizational change, marketing, and sales roles at a large ($2b+) technology product company. He has a BSCS from Northwestern University and a Masters in Management from Northwestern's Kellogg GSM. His articles on the business side of agile software development and Extreme Programming have been published in the Cutter IT Journal and the Auerbach IS Management Handbook (8th ed.). He has taught organizational change tutorials at XP Universe 2002 and XP Brazil.