Synch And Stabilize

I've just read the summary of SynchAndStabilize given in "MANAGEMENT & VIRTUAL DECENTRALISED NETWORKS: THE LINUX PROJECT" by George N. Dafermos

[URL: http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/dafermoslinux.pdf]

It has some similiarities to Xp:

• Small Teams (3-8 developers plus 3-8 testers)
• Short-ish, iterative development (3 major milestones within a 6-12 month period)
• Specifications are allowed to evolve
• Testing and Development done in parallel ("Developers design, code and debug. Testers pair up with developers for continuous testing." -- page 71)
• Feature prioritising, critical features and shared components done in phase one (milestone 1)
• Refactoring is called "optimisations" (although it might be just that and not refactoring) and are done as part of the development phase of a larger milestone phase

Some things the process does not have:

• OnSiteCustomer, features are obtained from customers before start of project
• FortyHourWeek is probably not part of the process!
• UserStories or any sort of breaking down of specifications aren't explicitly mentioned

I found it interesting that MS has also realised that the waterfall model simply does not work and has defined its own process that bears some similiarities to ExtremeProgramming. --GerritRiessen