XP Boot Camp

XP is something that takes a lot of discipline. With high levels of discipline you can achieve higher levels of quality, which I believe will return better than proportional results for the effort invested. The hard part for a lot of people can be striving for the level of discipline

This is something that I've seen lacking in the vast majority of developers (of which I'd include myself). I've also noticed that on the XP mailing list, there was a small discussion recently regarding the exchange of developers between businesses to encourage the growth of teams and developers. I really like the idea, but I can't see it flying well with most businesses.

But, I do think it would be very beneficial to the XP community and to the businesses that use XP to create an XP Boot Camp. In a nutshell, set up a non-profit group to work for a charitable cause on an open source project. Businesses that wish to improve the skills of their employees would send them to the XP Boot Camp for 4-6 weeks. During this time, they would work with experienced coaches to ensure that they get the full XP experience. Hopefully, this would allow for feedback all around both from the Boot Camp to the instructees and vice versa. And people would be encouraged to come back over the years to help keep their understanding of XP fresh and to allow them to experience new ways of apply the Extreme bits. And I'd hope that they would gain the insight into the level of discipline required and the benefits of the quality that comes from the high levels of discipline.

I believe and have seen that there can be a big difference between thinking about XP and doing XP. Worse case scenario when you want to get XP boot strapped, hire a coach who can put your team through an immersion course. It will save you months, if not years not to mention the value you'll get out of your team sooner.