[fmbb]

I have not seen Kent Beck argue for eXtreme Programming or other Agile methods in nuclear power plant software or aviation. These are niche industries and constitute a vanishingly tiny part of all the lines of code out there I presume.

The fact that short iterations adding features incrementally leads to better outcomes for software project is something professionals have known and argued for since the 1960s.

[zephen]

> The fact that short iterations adding features incrementally leads to better outcomes for software project is something professionals have known and argued for since the 1960s.

And practiced by software professionals since the 1960s. For maintenance. Even for aviation and nuclear. But in those industries, you're going to have a clear case, better documentation, and not be trying to "sprint."

Again, many truly best practices well predated XP/agile, and were subsumed into it. The real problem with XP/agile is the dogmatic straw-manning and demonization of other good practices that have their place, such as waterfall and exploratory programming. YAGNI, in particular, is more often used as a cudgel to shut down useful learning and exploration than anything else.