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Jeff Lowery wrote:
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Mike Champion [mailto:mc@xegesis.org]
(XPish points omitted)
> Within certain constraints. If garbage comes in, it goes out.
>
> I still don't put too much stock in giving users exactly what they say they
> want. It takes a certain level of skill and experience to look beyond
> immediate desires and arrive at the utmost needs. We might all want a boat
> to tool around in the water with, except that some of us realize too late
> the moorage, storage, and upkeep costs.
>
> Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.
AFAIK, XP isn't about giving user's what they want, it is about
practicing software development honestly. Sometimes that means
tearing down the pretense of knowing exactly what is needed,
and avoiding Big Design Up Front (http://xp.c2.com/BigDesignUpFront.html)
In engineering support, it is often the case that the user community
would prototype information systems, tools, and departmental databases.
Sometimes we would do the job from scratch, but we were often called
in to adopt orphaned systems. Most often when garbage comes in, it
stays in for far more years than one might imagine, and builds up
other crud around it.
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