A comparison of the value systems of adaptive software development and extreme programming: how methodologies may learn from each other

Today, we see an increasing interest in new software development methodologies that put humans at the center of the development process. Adaptive Software Development, Extreme Programming, and others are exemplars of this new breed of development methodologies. They are all based on the assumption that for coping with high speed and high change, traditional management techniques are inadequate. Effectively, the new methodologies are based on a different value system than the old ones. A value system is a system of beliefs about what constitutes the fundamental aspects of software development: developers, customers, markets, products, requirements, etc. This paper presents a simple model of value systems and compares the value systems of two exemplary new development methodologies, Adaptive Software Development (ASD) and Extreme Programming (XP). The purpose of this comparison is to more easily determine whether techniques of one methodology can be adapted and used by another methodology, thereby helping authors of methodologies to better learn from other methodologies.