The article on Extreme Programming (Is Design Dead? Martin Fowler) that Shaun shared (http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/designDead.html) provides some great vocabulary and insights, comparisons and contrasts. XP is an abbreviation used to refer to Extreme Programming but includes extreme experience, planning, and design as integral elements to create a highly nimble programming process.

This is a story, told by a voice of experience, of the separation of design and programming. The example used is the case of building a skyscraper over time with first a Chief Architect and then a team of programmers who follow the design plans. Fowler presents XP as an alternative where rapid (re)programming is tied to rapid (re)design. The example given is of building a smaller entity (ie let’s say a garden shed or a dog house) and doing it quickly using/developing local expertise that interfaces/integrates local scientific knowledge. XP seems related to our discussions of information infrastructure building. Real world practices are freqently a hybrid of such ‘extreme’ cases but from the article comes the thought to consider the ramifications of the ’size’ of the need at the time of project initiation. I’m still pondering whether the meaning of ‘refactoring’ is related to ‘iterative design’.

Meanwhile decided to represent the post as both an approach to an informatics environment and/or as a conceptual tool.