Re: [xml-dev] XML As Fall Guy

[Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>]

> 
> I wonder how much better these types of projects could go if a more
> incremental (Agile) approach was taken. The beauty of XML is that if you
> set
> the systems up right it can give you amazing flexibility and power
> combined.
> 

No one knows how to do government-style procurement in an Agile way. The only way they know is to write a 10,000 page invitation to tender, have three big consultancies spend a few million dollars each writing a 10,000 page response to it, and then choosing one of the options. By this time you are thoroughly locked into an extreme Waterfall model; moreover you have frozen your key technology choices very early in the cycle, whereas from an engineering point of view you should commit to specific products as late as possible.

I did see one project that tried to do it differently. They said "We've got a £20m budget, tell us what you can do for us with that". The suppliers spent the first £5m doing requirements analysis; it was back in Waterfall world because they still wanted a system description before choosing a supplier. They would have regarded anything else as signing a blank cheque.

Michael Kay
Saxonica