Do you really want extreme methodologies? I know  it is very effective, but for small teams and star programmers. It is  like shackling yourself to be a small organization - small teams, star  programmers (but not team players), politics, etc! Moreover, there is  no 'middle ground' in XP, you either do it or don't. When you leave out  certain processes, it is not XP anymore, right?
  
  While tools can take care of changing requirements - an iterative  development tool can be modified to suit XP, team politics alone would  ensure the failure of this in many cases.
  This is from the book "Case against XP" by Matt Stephens. http://www.softwarereality.com/lifecycle/xp/case_against_xp.jsp
  
  As the author/editor says, I firmly believe XP is not right for many cases, but that's just my opinion :-)
  
  
  
Meade Rubenstein <meader_nj@...> wrote:

         I'm a firm beliver in Agile/XP approachs and have found them very
  effective.  Short term deliverables are added, reprioritized, etc. -
  based on cost/benefit as determined by the stakeholders.  The project
  ends when $ run out or x% of benefit is realized or dramatic change in
  direction (company folds for example).  But what is used to track the
  ever changing goal(s)? and to show increasing/decreasing benefit
  trending as the project progresses.  For example as functionality is
  delivered the overall benefit of any new functionality could decrease
  based on the changing goal -- as more is provided it becomes less
  meaningful - not base on what is being delivered, but what the goal is
  changing into.  Agile provides the flexability to change and the goal
  value can be tracked - but is there a tool to handle both of these
  things?  
  
  -meade
  
  --- In pmtr@yahoogroups.com, "Alex Pukinskis" <Alex.Pukinskis@r...> wrote:
  >
  > That’s a great observation!  Using the tools most of us are familiar
  with,
  > it’s easy to lose sight of the business value, since there are so
  many tasks
  > to be tracked, and those tasks don’t always have intrinsic value on
  their
  > own.
  >
  > The intention of Agile Project Management is to focus tracking and
  project
  > management around small units of business value, not tasks.  Rather than
  > deliver projects in phases of tasks, the agile approach advocates
  producing
  > increments of business value every 1-4 weeks; in each of these short
  > iterations, we complete all phases of the project (analysis, design,
  > development, test, etc) for a small increment of business value.  
  We keep a
  > prioritized list of these small chunks of business value, and at the
  start
  > of each iteration, we select the highest-priority chunks to work on.
   Every
  > few weeks, we deliver some of the benefits promised by the goal of the
  > project.   Priorities of the other chunks lower down on the list can be
  > changed at any time to ensure we deliver the most business value we can.
  >
  > Tracking progress is a lot more effective with this approach,
  because you
  > can easily measure, every 1-4 weeks, exactly how much value you’ve
  > delivered.
  >
  > There are a lot of tools out there for doing this; many agile teams just
  > plan their projects with simple spreadsheets or even on index cards
  on the
  > wall (one chunk of functionality per card).  The company I work for
  produces
  > a web-based tool designed to help software teams keep track of business
  > value.  But to use a tool that’s effective at tracking real progress
  towards
  > a goal, you need to make this fundamental shift in how your project is
  > organized.   With phased development you never really know where things
  > stand, because you don’t really deliver any usable piece of the goal
  until
  > the end.  Working in smaller chunks helps you get around this.
  >
  > -Alex
  >
  > --
  > Alex Pukinskis - Agile Coach
  > Rally Software Development
  > http://rallydev.com/
  > 303.565.2846
  >
  >
  >
  > On 01 27 2006 6:49 AM, "Meade Rubenstein" <meader_nj@y...> wrote:
  >
  > > Often the focus of a project is changed from the goal - such as better
  > > customer service, reduced costs, increased performance, etc - to the
  > > delivery of the tasks.  These tasks are those that are 'guessed' at
  > > during the project definition phase and in many cases become etched in
  > > stone.  This often results in projects being delivered 'successfully'
  > > but without meeting hope for benefits (which could change over the
  > > course of the project).  Has anyone had any experience with a PM tool
  > > that focuses on the goal and set's diviations to it instead of
  > > predefined tasks, value, costs, etc.?? Is such as tool possible?
  > >
  > > -meade
  > >
  > >
  > >
  > >  
  > >  
  > >  
  > >
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  >
  
  
  
  
                            

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