XP customer practices: A grounded theory

The Customer is a critical role in XP, but almost all XP practices are presented for developers by developers. While XP calls for Real Customer Involvement, it does not explain what XP Customers should do, nor how they should do it. Using Grounded Theory, we discovered eight customer practices used by successful XP teams: Customer Boot Camp, Customer’s Apprentice, Customer Pairing, and Programmer’s Holiday support the well-being and effectiveness of customers; Programmer On-site and Road shows support team and organization interactions; and Big Picture Up Front and Re-calibration support Customers steering the whole project. By adopting these processes, XP Customers and teams can work faster and more sustainably

The Role of Customers in Extreme Programming Projects

eXtreme programming (XP) is one of a new breed of methods, collectively known as the agile methods, that are challenging conventional wisdom regarding systems development processes and practices. Practitioners specifically designed the agile methods to meet the business problems and challenges we face building software today. As such, these methods are receiving significant attention in practitioner literature. In order to operate effectively in the world of vague and changing requirements, XP moves the emphasis away from document-centric processes into practices that enable people. The Customer is the primary organisational facing role in eXtreme Programming (XP). The Customer's explicit responsibilities are to drive the project, providing project requirements (user stories) and quality control (acceptance testing). Unfortunately the customer must also shoulder a number of implicit responsibilities including liaison with external project stakeholders, especially project funders, clients, and end users, while maintaining the trust of both the development team and the wider business. This thesis presents a grounded theory of XP software development requirements elicitation, communication, and acceptance, which was guided by three major research questions. What is the experience of being an XP Customer? We found that teams agree that the on-site customer practice is a drastic improvement to the traditional document-centric approaches. Our results indicate, however, that the customers are consistently under pressure and commit long hours to the project in order to fulfil the customer role. So while this approach to requirements is achieving excellent results, it also appears to be unsustainable and thus constitutes a great risk to XP projects. Who is the XP Customer? The initial definition of XP resulted in many people interpreting the onsite customer to be a single person. This research has highlighted that a customer team always exists, and goes further to outline the ten different roles that were covered on the team, which range from the recognised "Acceptance Tester" role to the less recognised roles of "Political Advisor" and "Super-Secretary". What are the practices that support an XP Customer to perform their role effectively on a software development project? An additional eight customer-focused practices have been uncovered to supplement the existing XP practices. These customer-focused practices together enable customers to sustainably drive XP projects to successful completion. The practices range from those that specifically focus on interaction (both with the programmer team and the larger organisation) e.g. "Programmer On-site" and "Roadshows" to those that specifically look to the well-being and effectiveness of the customer (e.g. "Pair Customering") to those that highlight the key steps or activities that need to occur along the way (e.g. "Big Picture Up-Front" and "Recalibration")

The Role of Customers in Extreme Programming Projects

eXtreme programming (XP) is one of a new breed of methods, collectively known as the agile methods, that are challenging conventional wisdom regarding systems development processes and practices. Practitioners specifically designed the agile methods to meet the business problems and challenges we face building software today. As such, these methods are receiving significant attention in practitioner literature. In order to operate effectively in the world of vague and changing requirements, XP moves the emphasis away from document-centric processes into practices that enable people. The Customer is the primary organisational facing role in eXtreme Programming (XP). The Customer's explicit responsibilities are to drive the project, providing project requirements (user stories) and quality control (acceptance testing). Unfortunately the customer must also shoulder a number of implicit responsibilities including liaison with external project stakeholders, especially project funders, clients, and end users, while maintaining the trust of both the development team and the wider business. This thesis presents a grounded theory of XP software development requirements elicitation, communication, and acceptance, which was guided by three major research questions. What is the experience of being an XP Customer? We found that teams agree that the on-site customer practice is a drastic improvement to the traditional document-centric approaches. Our results indicate, however, that the customers are consistently under pressure and commit long hours to the project in order to fulfil the customer role. So while this approach to requirements is achieving excellent results, it also appears to be unsustainable and thus constitutes a great risk to XP projects. Who is the XP Customer? The initial definition of XP resulted in many people interpreting the onsite customer to be a single person. This research has highlighted that a customer team always exists, and goes further to outline the ten different roles that were covered on the team, which range from the recognised "Acceptance Tester" role to the less recognised roles of "Political Advisor" and "Super-Secretary". What are the practices that support an XP Customer to perform their role effectively on a software development project? An additional eight customer-focused practices have been uncovered to supplement the existing XP practices. These customer-focused practices together enable customers to sustainably drive XP projects to successful completion. The practices range from those that specifically focus on interaction (both with the programmer team and the larger organisation) e.g. "Programmer On-site" and "Roadshows" to those that specifically look to the well-being and effectiveness of the customer (e.g. "Pair Customering") to those that highlight the key steps or activities that need to occur along the way (e.g. "Big Picture Up-Front" and "Recalibration")

Smokejumper Magazine, October 2003

This issue of the National Smokejumper Association (NSA) Smokejumper Magazine contains the following articles: Lady NED Deanne Shulman (Bill Yensen), Remembering Wally Tower, Air America—A Daily Adventure (Johnny Kirkley), Ted Burgeon—A Life Will Lived (Jerry Dixon). Profiles on Bill Moody, Gilbert Weldy, Howard Smith (pilot) and Art Henderson. Smokejumper Magazine continues Static Line, which was the original title of the NSA quarterly magazine.https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_mag/1040/thumbnail.jp

Electronic/electric technology benefits study

The benefits and payoffs of advanced electronic/electric technologies were investigated for three types of aircraft. The technologies, evaluated in each of the three airplanes, included advanced flight controls, advanced secondary power, advanced avionic complements, new cockpit displays, and advanced air traffic control techniques. For the advanced flight controls, the near term considered relaxed static stability (RSS) with mechanical backup. The far term considered an advanced fly by wire system for a longitudinally unstable airplane. In the case of the secondary power systems, trades were made in two steps: in the near term, engine bleed was eliminated; in the far term bleed air, air plus hydraulics were eliminated. Using three commercial aircraft, in the 150, 350, and 700 passenger range, the technology value and pay-offs were quantified, with emphasis on the fiscal benefits. Weight reductions deriving from fuel saving and other system improvements were identified and the weight savings were cycled for their impact on TOGW (takeoff gross weight) and upon the performance of the airframes/engines. Maintenance, reliability, and logistic support were the other criteria

HM 25: New Interpretations in Naval History

Selected Papers from the Eighteenth McMullen Naval History Symposium Held at the U.S. Naval Academy 19–20 September 2013.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/usnwc-historical-monographs/1024/thumbnail.jp

Human factors and cultural influences in implementing agile philosophy and agility in global software development

As software becomes increasingly important to all aspects of industry, developers should be encouraged to adopt best practice and hence improve the quality of the processes used, and achieve targets relating to time, budget and quality. In the software industry, several software methodologies have been used to address software development problems; however some of these processes may be too bureaucratic. The Agile Alliance formed in 2001, sought to address this problem; accordingly, they developed a manifesto and twelve principles, to which all agile software methods adhere. The purpose of the manifesto and its principles is to uncover better ways of developing software. Agile software development methods seem to address the software development industry’s need for more agile processes that are responsive to changes during software development. Agile values and principles require a major cultural change for software managers, e.g. collective team responsibility and self-organisation, especially in large organisations with a strong culture of planning and centralised power. In large global organisations, this issue is likely to be exacerbated by cultural diversity. The objective of this thesis is to analyse the possibility, of using agile methods or practices in different cultures, and study what changes are required, to adapt agile approaches to different global application development issues. The study found that certain agile practices can be useful in different cultures and some practices required major cultural adaptation. A study of suitable practices for different cultures such as Australia, India and the United Kingdom and the associated suggested changes required are the main areas of study. Human factors have been identified by researchers and practitioners to impact on software development projects. Similarly, cultural differences may also be influential in a global market. The principles of agile software development focus on iterative adaptation and improvement of the activities of individual software development teams to increase effectiveness. This research programme focused specifically on national culture based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Hall’s cultural dimensions and the relationships between different aspects of national culture and the implementation of agile methods. To investigate this aspect of software development, a set of cultural dimensions and consolidated cultural agile attributes were developed, that are considered necessary for implementing agile methods. Based on relevancy, cultural dimensions such as Individualism/Collectivism, Power distance index, Uncertainty avoidance index, Time and Context were selected and studied. Some of cultural agile attributes studied include Transparency, Dedicated team, Decision making, Tolerance for change, Time keeping and Authoritative. This set was identified from a literature review on culture for agile methods, a detailed analysis of relevant commonly used agile methods and from feedback from agile experts. This thesis involves qualitative interviews conducted in Australia, India, and the UK using an interpretive paradigm and aims to identify cultural dimensions to implement agile methods in the software engineering community. The results of this research programme provide an analytical comparative framework for implementing agile methods in different cultures, and insight into how cultural differences may affect a software project and how these challenges can be addressed through agile principles

The United States Marine Corps way of war

Abstract: This thesis examines the evolution of institutionalized doctrine, strategy and tactics relating to, but not limited only to maneuver warfare as adopted by the United States Marine Corps during the post-Vietnam period in the United States. The United States Marine Corps also ingrained aspects of Asian warfare as offered by Sun Tzu; as well a return to its historical DNA in fighting “Small Wars”. The time frame studied spans the 1970’s through to 2010, using traditional as well as first person accounts by the prime movers of this perceived paradigm shift from attritional warfare to a maneuverist approach to warfighting. This evolutionary period of development for the U.S. Marine Corps was mistakenly referred to as a Revolution in Military Affairs by members of the Congressional Military Reform Caucus. It has also been mis-portrayed as a highly disruptive forced evolution. These two outliers were not the case. The following areas that were affected by this institutionalization of maneuverism were the Marine Corps’ educational system, the actual battle space prosecution of warfare; be it humanitarian assistance, regular set piece warfare or irregular guerrilla type warfare, and the role that the leadership cadre of the Marine Corps played in this evolutionary transition to maneuverism for the United States Marine Corps. Since Gulf War I the United States Marine Corps has utilized a non-attritionist demeanor on the battlefield whenever possible

Keep the Flyin\u27 Eight Balls Rollin\u27: Military Leadership in the 3360th Quartermaster Truck Company

The 3360th Quartermaster Truck Company, originally Company D of the 2639th Quartermaster Truck Battalion, was created in 1942 by drawing troops and officers from anti-aircraft units stationed in North Africa, to meet an emergency need for highway transportation to support the Allied advance East across North Africa. The reassigned troops and officers received no training in their new duties, but were instead immediately dispatched to the front with vital supplies. The company continued operations through North Africa, and on into Sicily and Italy. While in Italy, Elmer H. Puchta, previously assigned to the company as a platoon commander, took command. Puchta instituted a number of changes designed to make maintenance and operations in the company more efficient. He was blessed with a great deal of independence in his command, which allowed him to make such changes with little to no interference from superiors. These changes helped the company operate smoothly in support of the invasion of Southern France, known first as Operation Anvil and later as Operation Dragoon. In contrast to those units broken up to serve as part of the Red Ball Express in Northern France, the 3360th Quartermaster Truck Company remained intact throughout the advance across France. This continuity fostered unit cohesion and enhanced morale. Post war analysis of Quartermaster Truck units indicates most did not perform well, but the 3360th was an exception, collecting accolades and racking up impressive records for maintenance and operations. The success of the 3360th can be linked to the general quality of the troops assigned, its longevity and continuity as a unit, and Puchta\u27 s leadership. The anti-aircraft troops were generally of a higher quality than most assigned to Quartermaster duties, by virtue of the Quartermaster Corps\u27 low place in the Army\u27s assignment process. The long service with minimal personnel disruption allowed the 3360th to develop a unit soul that fostered achievement, and allowed individual troops to become proficient at their individual duties. Puchta\u27 s leadership took advantage of these positive factors, and overcame the lack of formal training in Quartermaster duties. His willingness to innovate, deep concern for his troops, and measured discipline were crucial to the unit\u27s success. The operations and leadership of support units is not as widely studies as those of combat units. Such studies are of great value to both the historian and the professional warrior in understanding military leadership