Is Xtreme Programming the next Strategic Inflection point?
The other day I was reading Andrew S Grooves "Only the Paranoid Survive". This book basically talks about those points one faces in career or buisiness ( I know nothing there) which do a volte-face. Everything that seemed so right till yesterday has changed completely.
Andrew talks about PC and Internet, the two inflection points which have impacted both careers and business in a profound way. And he also says that to handle these crisis points or strategic inflection points, one needs always to be on the alert and keep experimenting. That got me thinking.
All of a sudden XP dawned upon me. Is it a strategic inflection point? AS of now I cant conclude assertively but many of the observations do point to that. If XP really succeeds and takes root, its gonna change the way software is written on a large scale. Currently its limited to some courageous projects. It will be a topsy turvy, a huge change for every IT professional. It can make outsourcing look silly or make it even stronger if the Business Process Outsourcing succeeds. THen customers being closer to project team is a reality at offshore and not onsite! Whatever, only time will tell, but yes, I do think that XP may be the next infleciton point.
What then should a career professional do? And a business? For a latter I neither have the data nor the resources to predict. For a career, first thing is that each professional has to develop a learnign attitude. For most, people see an IT career as a non-learning job which is dangerous. Next you have to start learning about agile principles and the alternative way of writing software so that if the inflection point does rear its ugly head, you are better positioned to make the transition.
Andrew talks about PC and Internet, the two inflection points which have impacted both careers and business in a profound way. And he also says that to handle these crisis points or strategic inflection points, one needs always to be on the alert and keep experimenting. That got me thinking.
All of a sudden XP dawned upon me. Is it a strategic inflection point? AS of now I cant conclude assertively but many of the observations do point to that. If XP really succeeds and takes root, its gonna change the way software is written on a large scale. Currently its limited to some courageous projects. It will be a topsy turvy, a huge change for every IT professional. It can make outsourcing look silly or make it even stronger if the Business Process Outsourcing succeeds. THen customers being closer to project team is a reality at offshore and not onsite! Whatever, only time will tell, but yes, I do think that XP may be the next infleciton point.
What then should a career professional do? And a business? For a latter I neither have the data nor the resources to predict. For a career, first thing is that each professional has to develop a learnign attitude. For most, people see an IT career as a non-learning job which is dangerous. Next you have to start learning about agile principles and the alternative way of writing software so that if the inflection point does rear its ugly head, you are better positioned to make the transition.
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