Talk given by Neo's Paul Wilson and Alan Gardner at Lean Agile Scotland.
In the original Extreme Programming Explained Book, Kent Beck asks a question of Boehm's Cost of Change Curve: what if all that had been learnt over the previous 10 years -- simple design, object oriented programming, programmer tests -- could flatten the curve and move us away from big upfront specification and design? In the same book, he points out the crucial importance of collocating your teams.
What if in the 14 years since the publication of XP Explained, the advances in technology and all we have learnt about running Agile projects means that collocating is no longer the only way to run an XP project? Sure, having all the team members in one room is still optimal but is it micro-optimisation? What if the advantages of distribution (increased flexibility, better quality of life, increased talent-pool) can be made to outweigh the advantages of collocation?
Distributed Agile is not the easy choice, though; there are many pitfalls. In this talk we present some common Distributed Agile anti-patterns, the forces behind them, and the refactored solutions. We will include some great tools and techniques, including superb tips on remote pair-programming.
Distributed Agile: its time has come.