Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Cooper on Cooper vs Beck

A really useful piece from IxDA on the Beck (XP) vs Cooper (agile) of the discussion that was requested in a post. The most interesting post was from Cooper himself, who stressed how the discussion is no longer relevant with the changes that agile has come through both with the development of interaction design and agile community.

What I find really interesting is the point:
"Agile is a significant and positive movement in the world of technology, just as the movement for design has been. They are NOT AT ALL MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE and I'm actively working with a broad range of agilistas to find effective common ground."
This is where my research research also lies in finding this common ground.

And although Cooper says

"Please don't listen to this recording.It was made a long time ago and it is NOT representative of anybody's current thinking."


From a research perspective, I think this helps to highlight the changing and evolving process of agile and so helps to emphasize the demands placed upon interaction design to mange and cope with finding and understanding where the common ground lies.

Cue a methodology...

For the full IxDA Cooper vs Beck post
http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=41166

Alan Cooper
Apurv,

Please don't listen to this recording.

It was made a long time ago and it is NOT representative of anybody's current thinking.

At the time, Kent Beck was pushing pure XP, which is decidedly NOT the same thing as what is currently known as "agile". My opinions about XP are NOT the same as my opinions about agile. In the years since that recording was made, much has been learned by both the interaction design community AND by the agile community about what the world of software needs and how our two practitioner communities can provide it.

Kent's innovations such as pair programming and test driven development are powerful and effective tools. When they are paired with the agile concept that I call "responsible craftsmanship", the synergy is fantastic. While Kent and I still have significant points of departure in our thinking, I'd wager that he would not take the same stance today that he did in 2004, and I know that I don't (would you?) . Over a year ago I asked Kent to record our "debate" anew, and while he was game for doing it, the logistics never came together.

Agile is a significant and positive movement in the world of technology, just as the movement for design has been. They are NOT AT ALL MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE and I'm actively working with a broad range of agilistas to find effective common ground.

Please don't dredge up old arguments and mis-apply them to new ideas.

Thanx,
Alan
cooper | Product Design for a Digital World
Alan Cooper
alan at cooper.com | www.cooper.com
All information in this message is proprietary & confidential. "Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly, I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it." - Theodore Roosevelt

Original Message
From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Apurv Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 5:35 PM
To: discuss at ixda.org
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Content of Cooper vs Beck

Hi all,

While looking interaction design in an agile context, I'm constantly coming across a certain very landmark public discussion from 2004 between Alan Cooper and Kent Beck (of Extreme Programming) mentioned across the web. It seems this was a very insightful discussion and I am very curious to read it.

The original link to the content however is dead - http://www.fawcette.com/interviews/beck_cooper/default.asp

Would anybody have a copy of it stored with them and be able to share it with me? I'd be humongously grateful!

Here's the link to the Cooper vs Bech discussion on IXCD years ago - http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=1079

Cheers,
Apurv

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