Adams, Paul

English

University of Lincoln Institutional Repository

Ego & eXtreme Programming in the Libre SoftwareContextPaul James Adams, University of Lincolnpadams@hemswell.lincoln.ac.ukProblem BackgroundIn his essay of 1998, “Homesteading the Noosphere” [3], Eric Raymondshows how within the open source community there are various subculturesthat are formed on the basis of zealotry and (anti)commercialism. Almostany culture imaginable is going to be divided into sub-cultures accordingto varying levels of belief in certain key principles. At the lowest levels, itis these beliefs that make us individuals. Although Eric’s observation, byitself, may appear to be trivial, in the context of XP[2] in libre1 softwareit is vital. As he points out, “It is worthwhile to point out the distinctionsbecause they imply different agendas, and different adaptive and cooperativebehaviors.”Ego plays an unusual role within the libre process. In the first place, gra-tuitous ego-gratification (as with most communities) is generally regardedas a bad thing. Secondly, many open source practitioners are taking partbecause of the recognition they hope to obtain through making their contri-bution. Because of these contradicting scenarios within the same community,ego-gratification can only successfully be obtained through continued con-tribution. Again, parallels can be drawn between libre software and almostall other known communities, eg. politics, military and education. However,it is not too often we hear conversations such as, “I fixed a bug in LinusTorvald’s code”. When a project gains notoriety, the project and the leadprogrammer’s contribution are often mentally inseparable. Is it possible todiscuss Linux without mentioning Linus?When a project becomes this influential on the libre community, majorcontributors and project leaders can obtain ego satisfaction through knowingthat other people use their software, enjoy it and want to contribute to it.Lesser contributors to projects have to claim ownership rights over their1The term “libre” is used to avoid confusion over which of the open source of freesoftware communities I may be referring to. In saying “libre” I am referring to both ofthese communities.1contributions without going too far and upsetting the community; a fineline to tread.Libre software is formed in a reasonably agile manner. Its high levelprocess is generally based on short releases each producing useful code. Thebiggest strength of the libre software process is contained in its low-levelactivities, the work of the individuals. Contributors within a libre projectdo have to conform to certain processes within the project. For examplethe project leaders will determine dates for releases and make policies onwhich software tools to use etc. However, the libre process also affordsthe contributors certain freedoms: individual contributors can choose theirwork environment, they can (in most cases) use what software they wish,take breaks when they wish etc.Given the role that the ego plays within libre software development andthe freedoms given to the contributors, the main question this research pro-poses is “Can libre software development succeed when the contributors’ low-level process is dictated?”. In particular this project will look at applyingeXtreme Programming in the libre software content. XP has been chosen asit is an agile method (and therefore more likely to be suited to libre devel-opment) and because of its unique activities which normally require colloca-tion: pair programming, story card development and continuous integration.Pair programming is of particular interest as it forces two contributors toadhere to the same work practises as each other, where usually they wouldwork in a manner that suited themselves.Research HypothesisThe agile manifesto[1] provides a noble approach to software engineering.Unfortunately, there is an irony inherent in agile methods; the very factthat they are methods at all. Within the agile manifesto, practitioners ofagile methods stated their core beliefs as software engineers. These includedbeliefs that producing software was more important than producing docu-mentation to support the engineering process and that individuals involvedin the project are more important than the tools they use. Unfortunatelythere are occasions when the importance of tool support for the processcannot be denied.Libre software is produced as part of a mostly agile process. In somerespects the libre method is the most agile of the recognised agile methods asit allows the individuals within the project, in most respects, to work underthe conditions they choose, where and when they want and how they want.Plus, of course, libre software development follows a high-level process ofshort releases each producing useful software.The main hypothesis of this research is that it is possible to developan environment to support distributed eXtreme Programming in a manner2that allows a distributed team to to undertake collaborative activities with-out collocation or loss of productivity; using project velocity as a metricfor productivity. This, in itself, provides the problem of having to find amethod for measuring productivity with the Libre software context. How-ever, this hypothesis also leads to a further question. Is it possible to getlibre software developers to adopt the XP process without suffering loss offreedom and ownership. More interestingly it leads this research to a furtherhypothesis. In some cases, XP within the Libre context will result in a lossof productivity because of the role ego will play in pair programming.It is obvious that XP within libre may fail, in some cases, because ofgeographical reasons. Asking a contributor in Spain to pair program with acollaborator in the USA is asking too much because of the tme difference.This research is interested in the role of ego in libre pair programming. Libresoftware development is, to a reasonable extent, ego driven. Although XPpractitioners would be making a contribution to a Libre project by reviewingsomeone’s code while they type, it may not carry the same respect, in theirmind, as the coding itself.Proposed WorkThis research is in its initial stages and is currently concerned with devel-oping a system to support the distribution of eXtreme Programming. Itis planned that in the future this system will be used within two differentcontexts in order to evaluate its effectiveness; within industry and withinthe libre software community.References[1] The agile manifesto. http://www.agilemanifesto.org.[2] Kent Beck. eXtreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change.Addison-Wesley, 2000.[3] Eric Raymond. The Cathedral and the Bazaar, chapter Homesteadingthe Noosphere. O’Reilly, 2001.3

Ego & eXtreme programming in the libre software context

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Lincoln Institutional Repository