The Open Software Engineering Journal

2009, 3 : 1-8
Published online 2009 February 10. DOI: 10.2174/1874107X01003010001
Publisher ID: TOSEJ-3-1

Alternating Group Coordinator (AGC): An Approach to Improve eXtreme Programming

Hamid Mcheick and Hassan Artail
University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, Department of Computer Science and Mathematic, Postal Code G7H2B1, 555 Boulevard de l’Université, Chicoutimi (Québec), Canada; Electrical and Computer Engineering Department American University of Beirut, P.O. Box: 11-0236, Riad El-Solh. Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon.

ABSTRACT

Agile development methods such as eXtreme Programming (XP) are increasingly adopted by software organizations and engineers to access its effectiveness and the benefits it promises. However, XP has some limitations in certain aspects pertaining to inter-group communication and teamwork. This issue is attributed mostly to the isolation among different pair-programmer groups. In this analysis, we study the impact of applying our solution of the Alternating Group Coordinator (AGC) on the effectiveness of XP. After giving an overview of XP and the issue which we address, we describe the solution we devise and the method used to evaluate this solution through a statistical questionnaire and using it to develop a mathematical model that describes it.

Keywords:

Extreme programming , agile methods , inter-group coordination , SE case studies.