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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (15580)	1/3/2003 1:27:13 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Inside the World of Extreme Programming By Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier www.NewsFactor.com Thu Jan 2, 1:26 PM ET IT managers seeking to improve their company's software development processes may want to take note of a technique called Extreme Programming, which pairs coders in teams and encourages them to check and revise each other's work constantly. This development method was first described by programmer and author Kent Beck, who told NewsFactor that he deliberately chose an evocative name for the technique. "When you're starting up a movement with no money, pretty much you have to have a name which is attention-getting," Beck noted. But despite the catchy name, there are some old ideas at work in Extreme Programming. Ron Jeffries, co-author with Beck and others of the book "Extreme Programming Installed," told NewsFactor that the approach focuses on testing, teamwork and delivering code that provides "tangible business value to the customer." Common Sense The technical editor of the O'Reilly Network, who goes by the handle "chromatic," told NewsFactor that Extreme Programming is not a completely new concept. "None of the ideas are really new ... so anyone who's had training on good development practices should already be familiar with most of the techniques," he said. "The real trick is to get people to use the good techniques." Indeed, despite its common-sense approach, Extreme Programming is still controversial in developer circles, according to chromatic. "It seems counterintuitive," he noted. "Developers are paranoid. We hate the idea of having to change our code in the future for several reasons." Mostly, though, he said the reluctance to adopt a new approach reflects the reality that change of any sort is hard to accomplish. The Right Projects Of course, Jeffries told NewsFactor, Extreme Programming is not suitable for all projects. "Since one of the goals of XP is to bring down the cost of change, it doesn't work as well in huge-scale engineering projects, such as the space shuttle, where the specifications have to be nailed down," he noted. What kinds of projects are right for Extreme Programming? According to Jeffries, "XP works best for medium-sized teams where a product can be delivered in stages, and where there's freedom to experiment with some of the more controversial techniques." Teamwork Hurdles Even though Extreme Programming may be right for some projects, hurdles exist in the transition from theoretical strategy to real-world practice. For example, the technique's team setup, in which two programmers are assigned to work together to write code, presents some interesting problems for open source projects that want to use the Extreme approach. "Open source projects are usually distributed all over the world, and XP recommends that teams be co-located," Jeffries noted. However, he added, developers need not adopt every principle underlying Extreme Programming. "Every team always needs to adopt its own development process, not one right out of the box, whether it be XP or any other." According to Beck, many organizations take the 12 steps he outlined in his book about the subject too literally. "People see it as a checklist -- if you just did that stuff everything would be okay. [But] there's no program [alone] that will lead you to success." The Extreme Future Is Extreme Programming catching on? Beck, of course, says it is. "It is being seriously adopted by a small number of large firms and a large number of smaller firms.... People [are] betting their careers on whether XP is going to work." The O'Reilly Network's chromatic agreed. "Rational's just added support for XP to their RUP tool, and XP's getting a lot of treatment in professional development circles. More and more companies are adopting it, and there is already a wealth of books on the subject." He added that IT managers considering taking the plunge would do well to remember that the technique is not a quick fix, but a long-term commitment. "It takes some work to adopt it fully, and it's definitely not a magic powder to sprinkle on lazy managers and customers and programmers to turn them into all-stars, but the pieces do fit together to work some powerful magic." news.yahoo.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (15580)	1/3/2003 5:12:27 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Study: Spam Cost U.S. Corporations $8.9B By ANICK JESDANUN AP INTERNET WRITER Friday, January 3, 2003 NEW YORK -- All those junk e-mail messages may promise instant wealth, but they can be quite painful to the bottom line. A study to be released Monday attempts to quantify the annual cost of spam: $8.9 billion for U.S. corporations, $2.5 billion for European businesses and another $500 million for U.S. and European service providers. Marten Nelson, an analyst at Ferris Research, says that while most spam can be deleted in one second, occasionally someone is duped into clicking the message. It also takes time to track down legitimate messages mistakenly tossed by inaccurate spam filters. Figuring it takes 4.4 seconds on average to deal with a message, the messages add up to $4 billion in lost productivity for U.S. businesses each year. Another $3.7 billion comes from companies having to buy more powerful servers and more bandwidth as well as divert staff time. The rest is attributable to companies providing help-desk support to annoyed users. The costs are less in Europe because spam isn't as big of a problem, Nelson said. But in future calculations, Nelson said he may have to add the costs of wireless spam, a growing problem in Europe as text messaging gets more popular. seattlepi.nwsource.com