Organizers:
Topic: XP Project as a ComplexAdaptiveSystem? (CAS).
Paper submitted for the AnalogyFest?.
http://www.visibleworkings.com/analogyfest/payne-augustine-cas.pdf
This turned out to be an exciting and wide ranging (2+ hour) discussion of CAS and utilizing this as an analogy for XP projects. The notes from this session are incomplete at best and are intended to be a starting point for discussion. Please feel free to update this page as you wish.
The discussion began with an overall review of the paper and the principles of CAS. We concentrated on Agents, Meta-Agents and Agent Interactions for our analogy to XP. We covered several questions and topics:
The following topics were also discussed in depth....but notes were neglected in the excitement of discussion.
Other Names and Resources:
Many (if not all) of the names that came up in the discussion have been impoperly recorded in this document and should be subject to review and updating. Here are a few, add more as you wish.
Attendees:
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Topic: XP Project as a ComplexAdaptiveSystem? (CAS).
Paper submitted for the AnalogyFest?.
http://www.visibleworkings.com/analogyfest/payne-augustine-cas.pdf
This turned out to be an exciting and wide ranging (2+ hour) discussion of CAS and utilizing this as an analogy for XP projects. The notes from this session are incomplete at best and are intended to be a starting point for discussion. Please feel free to update this page as you wish.
The discussion began with an overall review of the paper and the principles of CAS. We concentrated on Agents, Meta-Agents and Agent Interactions for our analogy to XP. We covered several questions and topics:
- Is predictability desirable in software development? The real goal of software development is to deliver business value and that may be best done through change rather than predictability.
- So what - how does seeing the XP Project as a CAS help? Projects do not react in predictable ways to changes in conditions. Changing rules or processes in a project can lead to unintended consequences and may not create the desired outcome. Viewing projects as a CAS can allow us to get some distance from issues and allow us to determine how to make appropriate changes and analyze their effect. This process is called Steering from the Edges.
- Metaphors are often useful in helping people see their work differently, which often leads to new helpful insights.
- Project behavior is highly dependent on the initial conditions.
- The XP Practices provide a set of SimpleRules? that act as a generative rather than a stifling structure from which complex, global behavior emerges.
- Feedback manifests itself in a multitude of ways in XP. XP teams maximize agent interactions. Short time boxing creates feedback on a human scale.
- The visual system of frogs only detect changes in their surroundings. For example, frogs will ignore flies that do not move (dead), but will be attracted to movement. Living systems are closed systems that interact with the surrounding medium of the Environment. AutoPoesis? refers to systems that produce their own structure. These systems change their internal structure in order to maintain their organization. In this way, they are constantly adapting.
- Projects naturally restructure to rise to the challenge of change - autopoesis in action.
- Evolution does not have a goal but projects do.
The following topics were also discussed in depth....but notes were neglected in the excitement of discussion.
- Emergent Patterns
- Bursts of Productivity or Sudden Productivity Crash
- Emergent form of North Indian Music
Other Names and Resources:
Many (if not all) of the names that came up in the discussion have been impoperly recorded in this document and should be subject to review and updating. Here are a few, add more as you wish.
- Peter Senge. The Fifth Discipline.
- Virginia Satir. Families as a model for projects
- Humberto Maturana - Cybernetics and living systems.
Attendees:
- JeffMcKenna
- RachelDavies?
- MichaelHamman?
- ManuelVidaurre?
- IgnacioNavarro?
- MikeGreen
- KevinPicott?
- BillMyers?
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