The Bare Essentials

SOMETHING ABOUT FIRST THINGS FIRST OR TRAVELING LIGHT
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Nail down the essential XP practices first. Without these, the others
don't matter. If you get them, that will set the stage for implementing
all of the others.
Ernest Shackleton led the British Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914. At the
time, he was one of the most experienced Antarctic explorers in the world. He
prepared as well as could be expected. He took 27 men with him.
Within a year of leaving England, their ship Endurance was locked in the ice in
the Weddell Sea north of Antarctica. The pack crushed Endurance slowly over a
period of several months. Before it sank, the men salvaged as much material as they
possibly could and took to the ice. Shackleton knew that they would have to spend
an indefinite period of time living on the floes. There was only one thing to do.
Shackleton gathered everyone for a somber stand-up meeting. He told his men
that they were going to walk out of there alive. To do that, they could carry only
what they absolutely needed – the bare essentials. That meant only two pounds of
"personal gear." When he finished speaking, he took out his gold cigarette case and
several gold sovereigns, and without hesitation dropped them on the ice in the
middle of the circle of men. They all followed suit. Coming out alive was more
important than ultimately worthless baubles. The amazing ending to the story is that
not a single man perished. They not only survived, they won.

Nothing brings what really matters into focus quite like staring death in the eye.
Conducting a software project is no different. Don't believe it? Consider these
sobering statistics from 8,380 software projects in a variety of industries in 19962:

 31.1% of projects were cancelled

 52.7% were completed but were over budget, over time, or had fewer
features than originally specified

 52.7% of projects that broke their budgets cost 189% of their original
estimates

 16.2% were on time and under budget
That's as daunting as facing death on the Antarctic ice. Surviving and winning
require that you follow a principle of XP. You have to travel light. When you begin
the XP adventure, you can't carry worthless baubles with you.
So, the first thing you do is meet with your manager (this is true whether you are
a manager or a developer… unless you are the big cheese, you have somebody you
are working for). You say to them something like this:
"I've been examining the way I've been working and I think I could be doing a
better job of helping you meet your goals. In order to do a better job for you, I need
to be perfectly clear on what it is your goals are and what you want me to produce. I
mean the big picture, not necessarily what you want me to produce this week
(although I'd be happy to do that, too). Once I'm clear on that I want to examine
everything I'm doing and make sure that I'm making the best use of my time in order
to help you meet your goals."
After he picks his jaw up off the floor, he'll probably tell you something like:
"Well, we really need to get this product out (or at least to system test, or ready
for the trade show, or…)".
He might also add something like:
"And, you know, I'm really under a lot of pressure from my boss about keeping
Archibald in Marketing happy. So be sensitive to that."
We will almost guarantee you the first words out of their mouths won't be
"attend as many meetings as possible and produce lots of documents that nobody
reads." So, go ahead and ask them. Once they tell you what they want, hold them
accountable to it. Whenever they ask you to do something that seems contrary to the

goals, ask them whether that has become more important than meeting the originally
stated goals. If they say yes, don't be a jerk, gladly do what they ask you to do. If it
becomes a habit, find a good time to talk to them about it.
Nine times out of ten, when you ask your management what they want most
from you and they see you sincerely trying to give it to them, they'll be thrilled.
We've both managed people. Trust us. Starting here, two out of two managers
surveyed want nothing more from their employees. You'll have to sample the other
eight yourself. If you work for one that says otherwise, you might want to seriously
consider looking for a new manager.
Now, all that's left to do is start doing the essential practices of XP on whatever
part of the project you can and be sensitive to his other pressures (hopefully he didn't
dump too many of them on you).