Melghat Adventures – I
December 23, 2007 
Thanks to a geographically diversified coterie at workplace, I get to visit different parts of India in the pretext of attending marriages. Being a wildlife and nature aficionado, I prefer the marriage itinerary to be packed with a visit to wildlife sanctuary near the venue. Earlier it was gir, then sunderbans and now is the time for Melghat, pre-cursor attending a marriage in Nanded.
Melghat Tiger Reserve located in Amaravathi District of Maharashtra is relatively less-known tourist resort. Thanks to which, much of the forest is unperturbed with crazy tourists and pepsi cans and bisleri bottles. A 13 hour bus drive from Hyderabad took us to Amaravathi, the heart of Vidharbha. From Vidharbha another 1hr drive takes us to the shanty town of Parathwada. Much of the journey from Amaravathi to Parathwada criss-crosses killer cotton fields skirting on both sides of the road. As a first time visitor to this part of India, I was having a mixed feeling passing through Vidharbha heart lands – where every tick of two-and-a-half hour culminates in a farmer suicide. My mind was perplexed and I was curiously gazing out of the window on the villagers and their homes, trying to read the misery on their face. An amalgam of shame, sadness and discontent was brewing on my mind, the overwhelming thought – how venal and insensitive we have disintegrated to?
Parathwada was a picture of typical India, with a dilapidated bus station, shabby roads and flith all around. From Parathwada, began the journey to Melghat which almost 900m above sea level. This was the best part of journey passing through bucolic settings and innumerable hair pin curves and breath-taking views. Our stay was booked in Forest Guest House at a place called Kolkas. A two hour topsy-turvy ride through forests and mountains left us in Kolkas. The only proof that we had indeed landed in Kolkas was a sign board which read Kolkas Guest House, Turn Right. Rest apart it was dense forest all around, the conductor while getting down pointed his hand and said walk down 3km you will find a guesthouse and with that bus chugged away. No sign of human civilization, no concrete structures, no electric poles….. just trees, trees and more trees with a road in the midst winding away. The first thing I did was to check if there was a mobile signal, the Nokia was blank. No GSM, No CDMA – welcome to Jungle Land. Then started our trudge on the 3km path in search of the guest house. On the way was the first sighting of the trip – a beautiful golden red spider, resting on a labyrinthine network of web between two trees. Out popped three digi-cams to capture this fascinating handiwork of the spider and the spider itself. I was struggling for 1minute, to get a shot, the spider just couldn’t be figured out through the lens. Thankfully the photography connoisseur in the midst helped with the hint of Manual Focus. So with the mode set I harried my lens in search of the spider and finally caught it through the eyes of the camera. Click! Click! Click! The camera had kick-started for the first time in this trip and on its way to capture the magic of mesmerizing Melghat.
A 20mts walk took us to Guest House, resting on the banks of River Sipna, it was an idyllic setting to unwind one-self and recharge. The guest house is manned by a two-man army and the rooms were pretty shabby and bathrooms were awful to say the least. But outside the room was the lap of nature, pristine, atoned with green, rustling with the sounds of birds and winds gracing the trees. So for once we forgot what’s inside and our souls were kept wandering outside while physically our body was cozying in the warmth of two layer blankets from chilling cold outside. But let me accept here for just 200/= for a suite for 3 persons together per night, what we got was supreme luxury.
The first rude jolt of the trip occurred here, when the two-man army welcomed us and told you are stuck here if you don’t have a vehicle. As I mentioned earlier, since it’s not much hyped destination, there are no private resorts and those who wish to do safari had to have their own vehicles. A pall of gloom descended on us, then started a series of debates, interrogation and quizzing the guys, finally we worked out a plan to sent one of us along with a guy to the nearest village and find if we can get a vehicle. My dear friend Alosh, took up the charge and thankfully the guest house had a bike. They set out in dark, yes darkness at 5.30pm to Semadoh which is 14km from Kolkas. Semadoh is a small village which has a couple of tea stalls and a phone booth. Dropping a new one rupee coin can make you talk for 20sec to outside world. I sent my SOS message to home through my messenger Alosh. While me and Kunal had a hot water bath and comforted ourselves in the confines of the bed, Alosh battered the cold and brought back good news. He got a Commander jeep for the whole day next day for 1500/= and our adventures were to begin next day at 5am.
Inside Guest House was resident a family, and the only source of food here was their home. They prepared us a simple yet sumptuous dinner and we were having the first proper food of the day at 8pm after the long arduous bus journey. 9pm, with nothing much better to do in a forest, we crashed to bed dreaming about tigers and bears and an eventful day awaited us in the horizon.
(End of Part-I)
Srisailam Trip – 2007
August 19, 2007 
After an ordeal of a trip in the summer of 2005 smothered with some fine memories it was time for another Srisailam trip. This time it was a packaged tour from APTDC. The deal worked out to be 660/- per head inclusive of conveyance and stay in an uber cool resort in Srisailam for one night, altogether I felt it was a dandy of a deal.
Off we set on Friday, Aug 17th an early morning start with overcast sky and benign weather promised it to make it a picture-perfect trip. So I loaded my camera with fully charged batteries and a neatly formatted 2GB card to capture every bling of nature. The travel itself is very pleasurable as the destiny. Srisailam route criss-crosses rustic villages and Nallamala forests which houses Nagarjuna Sagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve. Nallamala forest is the hotbed of Naxal movement and the forest covers are profuse hide outs of naxalites. An avid watcher can easily spot monkeys, deer’s and wild boars enroute to Srisailam.
Srisailam is on a hill top about 2800mts above sea level. Going from Hyderabad one has to hop from one mountain to the second one through a gorge which houses the Srisailam dam between the two mountains. The beautiful spectre of nature unravels when one descends the first mountain pass through a narrow bridge to start the ascend of the second mountain. The bridge runs parallel to the dam at least a couple of kilometers away. Standing on the bridge embers of tranquility engulfed me; all around lustrous tinge of green from the skirting mountains lent a mystic charm to the place. The river – which is a sangam of Krishna, Tungabadra and Bhima rivers – underneath was in full spate thanks to the copious rains and shutters of the dam were open aiding the cataclysmic flow. The sight of water gushing-seething-scuttling out from the dam was mesmerizing and it really pulled everyone into a thrall.
Our first stoppage was at the dam view point. Enthralled by the spectacle everyone was out with their cameras and truly a photographer hidden in everyone was blooming out. Sheets of water were cascading down the dam walls and once it cascaded down, from the sheer pressure the sheets of water ricocheted and transformed to a shape of parabola made from droplets of water. The water gushing looked like infinite lustrous white beads of pearl roiling down in a chain. Because of the sheer force of tumbling water the whole milieu was draped with tiny droplets of water as if an artist has stippled the canvas of nature with tiny white pearls. The atmosphere was engulfed with these sprinkling droplets and from a distance it was as if writhing vines of steam emanating from a hot water stream. It really made my day I was gasping and swooned by these splattered water droplets and splashing river traversing amidst the silent mountains.
The next stop was Panchganga which is a small waterfall amidst thickets of forest cover. A very tranquil and serene place and its believed Sankaracharya scripted Soundarya Lahiri and Sivanand Lahiri sitting here. Our next stop was Padal Ganga which also is the backside of the dam or the reservoir. A rope-way takes one to the bank of the reservoir and a boat ride through the water was a riveting experience to behold forever.
Coming back to Srisailam the destiny – the abode of Lord Mallika Arjuna Swamy, Srisailam holds a high pedestal as is one among the 12 Jyothir Lingas in India. The idol itself is half concealed underneath the earth. One of the most amazing traits of this temple is devotees are allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum and are allowed to touch the main idol itself and one can ever perform pooja on the main idol in their own, which is not allowed in any other South Indian Temple.
Next day morning after a nice darshan and sumptuous breakfast we embarked on the return journey another joy ride through the natures lap bequeathed with charm and greenery. Most of my pictures which I shot in this trip were taken sitting in the moving bus on the return journey and to my surprise they have come out very well, truly capturing the natures best with tactility and are here to stay refurbishing my memory – a poignant travel memoir.
Oh! My sleeping child
May 19, 2007 
His smiles and laughs have become more sporadic and liberal. But they are not mere highfalutin ones; but are boisterous guffaws slivering out the innate happiness in his mind. Philippics and apoplectic tirades are not something privy to his tender and pristine soul. I think this one of the best phases of his life we as parents are enjoying. A pristine mind, always anxious and curious about surroundings, grasping and moseying towards any objects around his vicinity with an inquisitive intent all the way yelping and bawling and his body suffuse of energy.
Who on this earth would enjoy and laugh merrily at the crackling sound of paper, rustle of the leaves, switching on of the lights or the splurge of water from a pipe? Taken in front of the mirror he passes a sarcastic smile at himself and peers around to catch himself in the mirror. Well I guess any 8 month old kid does all that stuff. These mundane happenings for us are the greatest source of joy for him. Our days are made up and enlivened by this crackerjack boy who on each passing day learn and explore new facets of life. So one day he would learn how to say “Hello” (not verbally). So when we say “Hello!” he brings his hand forward for a shake-hand. And may be the third day he learns “Namastey”, saying which he clasps his hands together. He is so embroiled by the new lesson that he forgets the old “Hello” and after a lot of practice he might remember how to react to both the greetings. Amidst all this we see a life sprouting in front of us, ours own, who by his demeanors infuses vibrancy to all at home. He is for us the “Innocence Personified”.
It’s sad to think from an unsophisticated beginning human beings mind gets polluted progressively with all the unwanted emotions and thoughts taking him to the brink of irrationality and wilderness. That’s why whenever he sleeps I gently hymn the words of my favorite MLTR song to him.
The Milky Way upon the heavens
is twinkling just for you
and Mr. Moon he came by
to say goodnight to youI’ll sing for you I’ll sing for mother
We’re praying for the world
and for the people everywhere
gonna show them all we careOh my sleeping child the world’s so wild
but you’ve build your own paradise
That’s one reason why I’ll cover you sleeping childIf all the people around the world
they had a mind like yours
we’d have no fighting and no wars
there would be lasting peace on EarthIf all the kings and all the leaders
could see you here this way
they would hold the Earth in their arms
they would learn to watch you playOh my sleeping child the world’s so wild
but you’ve build your own paradise
That’s one reason why I’ll cover you sleeping childI’m gonna cover my sleeping child
Keep you away from the world so wild
Top 3 Presidential Candidates
The commies dikat is out for the upcoming Presidential polls “….a secular candidate with political background….”. The word secular in the vernacular of commies is obviously to be interpreted as someone who has proven traits of being anti-Hindu (esp. middle class Hindus), minority appeasement gets bonus and political background means he/she should have slithered around with politicking in his/her past?
Under such a concoction of politics and secularism the top 4 candidates coming to my mind are
1. Arundati Roy – A hardcore hypocrite, funded by NGOs to globe trotting, stay in five stars and known for giving acerbic speeches on India and Indian civic to elite European, American diaspora. So whenever there is development/industrial/infrastructural projects involving land acquisition Arundati and coterie are there upright with a Socialist Commie ideology to put hurdles in the project and grab media attention worldwide. Her secular credentials are impeccable, after her fight for a Afzal Guru (Muslim) convicted by Indian Law for terrorism. And also have many such vibrant ideas like troop pull out from Kashmir, ways to malign and demoralize armed forces for human right violation etc. Overall a fitting bill for a political, secular candidature matching wavelength with Commie ideologies.
2 . Arjun Singh – The messiah of Muslims and downtrodden sections of Indian society, fighting hard and raging a battle today against social injustice, apartheid, untouchability and what not? An entirely palatable candidate for Commies for doling out sops to (creamy layer) for the so called backwards he is definitely one of the strong contenders. It would be even sacrilegious to question his secular credentials. Having strong political background for amassing wealth and building bungalows worth 20 crores in 1980’s its time for all to give serious thoughts on this contender. And above all he is a good player of yes-man, sycophantic roles all through his life for the Family.
3. Shahabuddin Bihar RJD MP with strong political credo with 52 criminal cases on him. Vast experience of Constitutional loop holes to escape each time after being convicted. Being a Muslim no one can question his secular colors. And probably the only candidate who can match the Left mandate of “person with thorough knowledge of the working of the Constitution”.
Serving Trash – The Hindu
The filter coffee and The Hindu the quintessential combo for many South Indian homes for starting the day. But now the combo has gone awry at least for me. The Hindu the leading light for news and analysis for decades has renegaded itself to a voluble mouth-piece for Commies dishing out acerbic articles for the sake of Socialists.
So what we see now – fortnightly bashing for BJP, Narendra Modi and Gujarat. Then once in two weeks the obedient sycophant M/S. Harish Khare would play out his sycophantic notes for the family and Manmohan. Attack the US capitalism and harp on Iran. Its a such a sham the editorial and analysis. A case in point, is the analysis of UP verdict where Mr. Khare has surmised it like this
“Above all, the U.P. vote is the first evidence of a kind of “Manmohan Effect”: the country’s collective nerves remain calm and un-excitable, despite occasional provocations from jihadi groups.
While there is no cause for the UPA bosses to feel greatly excited, there is also no need for them to persist with their self-doubts.”
At the ground level its pretty eminent that verdict is decisively against UPA and the family has abjectly failed in its propaganda, The Hindu and Khare wants to make us believe that defeat of BJP is a victory for the family. The height of Commie-ism was witnessed in Nandigram coverage when editorial were penned by Karats absolving themselves (Commies) from the blame of taking innocent lives and putting it squarely on other parties and naxalites, where as the fact of the matter remains Buddha bungled it when coming to maintaining law and order/acquiring farm lands. Whatever the Commies say, truth remains that Guajarat remains the best managed state with best-in-class infrastructure and investments and the 30years of Commie rule is not taking West Bengal anywhere in terms of investments, industry or quality of life.
I reckon editorials and analysis should subjugate the people to think apolitically and should be the medium for vibrant discussions. Instead The Hindu is just serving trash by enslaving itself in its nepotism and jingoisms for a few parties and bereft ideologies.
Now if anyone is really interested in some quality opinions and analysis I recommend make a switch to Business Line, though from the same media house of The Hindu, I hear its under different management. The difference is distinct and quality is top notch. Even though a Business News oriented paper, it really serves the purpose for a reader who is really looking for some quality analysis, views, and opinions. The opinions are written by eminent scholars and researchers without any political moorings and most articles have positive connotations and this is something which all should read, rather than being entangled in the morbid political rivalries and blame games and casteisms which is eating out the psyche of this nation.
So next time a CRR is hiked or 123 agreement is signed or Wheat price is raised by 100/quintal or a Vidharba happens or a SEZ is acquiring lands scan through the Business Line OP-Eds to see the real implications and ramifications of course all without the tinge of political shades. Apart from the OP-Eds Business Line also has some quality add-ons like New Manager (as the word says its about managing people/organizations by new manager), e-world (happenings in IT world), Life, Investment world (shares, mutual funds, loans the whole of investments), Mentor and of course the daily Last Page titled Variety which can enthuse all and sundry with interesting stories.
So I have made the decisive switch, The Hindu to trash and The Business Line in hand with a mug of aromatic coffee.
Kanni Kanum Neram
Vishu beckons
Mannasil Nerayey Kanikonnakal Virichu Kondu Veendum Vishu Varavayi.
Kai Nerayey Kai Neetavum Manam Nerayey Madhura Smrithikalumayi Vishu Kaalam
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
After Tom, Dick and Harry now I too am an owner of digital camera! Got the Lumix DMC-FZ50 model from Panasonic.
As cricketers say “Let the willow do the talking”, let me just show you the images and let it do the talking. Let me introduce Chimpu-the Chimpanzee, my sons best friend. Here you see Chimpu yelping on the railings of our balcony enjoying the photo session. Now this Chimpu always likes to be the center of attraction, as his liking I have taken this shot with all focus on him. So as you see the background building is not looking as sharp as Chimpu and the railings does. This is done by keeping the Aperture Priority to 3.2.
Now let me quickly show the same Chimpu with aperture of f11.0. Chimpu hates it if he knows he is not the center of attraction. So quickly have a glance at it
Sharpness of the background and Chimpu are even in this aperture mode.
Ananthu and Chimpu love water, cold water bathe makes them guffaw merrily. The sound of gushing of water from the pipe makes them excited. And water that ubiquitous life line – captured in oceans, waterfalls, rivers, drains and rains enamors our eyes. So let me show that gush of water from the pipe though not enticing as waterfall.
So you see the pipe and water gushing out. But the water looks like losing some sheen and transparency and looks like an extended rod from the pipe. Lumix had taken this with a Shutter Speed of 1/40 or exposure of 0.025 sec. So let us try to restore some beauty of the gushing water. The next one is shot with shutter speed of 1/500 or an exposure of 0.002 sec.
Did you notice that small wavering pattern and transparency of the water? Oops! bucket overflow let me pour some in the mane of Ananthu.
Chimpu and Ananthu’s favorite pass-time is to stand in the balcony and peer at the distant road and on the swooshing vehicles madly swirling ahead of the other in the race against time. Let us see some of the vehicles moving on that road. Here is a jeep seems to going at a high speed.
Even though the jeep is moving at roughly 60km/hr its looks as if stationery in the road. Lumix took this shot with Aperture of 6.3 and Shutter Speed of 1/320. Now let me show you how these vehicles are zipping through the road.
Did you see that? Hyundai Accent Car appears to be actually zipping and the background looks kind of blurred as in eddying. This is captured with Aperture of 7.1 and Shutter Speed of 1/250. This zipping effect was bought in by slightly moving my hand with the car 
The HITEC City where we live as you know is the hub and frenzy of construction boom in Hyderabad. In our backyard is rising up a new commercial building. Have a look at this man working under sweltering heat in hot sun.
Does it look like a cloudy-gloomy day? Well its the effect White Balance Adjust. Lumix can control the color temperature so in the above shot I have kept White Balance as Cloudy to bring that appearance. The same thing under an incandescent light setting will be like this
Boy! does it look like Sun is at its peak?
One of the biggest problem while taking photos is exposure or amount of light on the subject compared to its background. Many shots I have taken in my good old Kodak KB-100 camera gets spoiled because of this. To see what I am telling have a look at this snap.
Here the focus is on the corridor in front of our flat. But the light outside is so bright that any subject in front is going to appear dark like a ghost. Lumix allows me to control exposure on the subject to compensate the bright background. I can under-expose or over-expose the subject.
Now you can see the background outside the railings is not so bright as I have increased the exposure on the subject, in this case the corridor.
I suppose I have bored you with my paeans on Lumix DMC-FZ50. Feeling sleepy? Well my son is definitely feeling so. Let me just go and put him to sleep showing him the bright moon risen on the eastern horizon.
For the curious- this shot is taken with 12x Optical Zoom. And in any night shot what you need is to increase the sensitivity of the lens and here I have kept it to ISO-400 and Shutter Speed of 1/400.
Here is another shot on Mr. Moon with an ISO-800 setting.
Now that I have let my willow talk, what do you feel? Is it just another Tendulkar or Tenducker whatever you call? Or will it be a Ricky Ponting?
Nisabdh
The Factory has churned out another flick – Nishabdh. What a name to a film production company -Factory. Whenever I hear the word factory first thing coming to mind is churning out stuff in a assembly line – a repetitive monotonous affair. Factory is where innovation is one time at design and rest is just mechanical production. True to its name Factory churned out some good movies like Rangeela, Satya and Company — and subsequent lots of production have been worth a shrug off.
Coming to its new product Nisabdh good thing about it is the awe inspiring locales of Munnar where the plot is set in and RGV has captured the essence and greenery of Munnar without any tinker in his frames. Surely this film will do a world of good to Munnar and provide fillip to its booming tourism. The story itself revolves around 5 characters and invariably you know its all about illicit relationships and infidelity. Earlier we had night-mare called KANK which was glorifying this theme in a Bollywood Masala ambience. This one takes it one level further by conceiving a relation between 60 year old man (who though looks like 70+ in the film) and 18 year old lass who seemed to forgot wearing her bottoms all through the film. But thankfully its not Karan Johar who is directing the film, so no songs, no concocted wits, no grisly tears and of course no rock and roll. The emotions are captured by the photography in the frame itself or sometimes just by mute silence. And finally RGV seems to have played safe neither delving on the genesis of such a relation nor the fall out of it.
But film is well scripted and shot. After a long tiring day or on a hot sunny afternoon under the comforts of air-conditioned multiplex watching this film can make you doze off intermittently. That doesn’t mean you should put off your plans of watching this film. Somethings are good like the acting of AB, Revathy and Nassar, the photography, the screenplay and then picturesque Munnar and the crew have definitely done their homework before setting on the project.
Remembering Sabarimala
Time of the year when the holy hillock is erupting with life and hymns of Lord Ayyappa. For the past few months everything related to Lord Ayyappa and Sabarimala were murky, when the so-called pseudo women’s right activist took it upon themselves to create a scandal in the name of the Lord. But I guess most of those who have gone to Sabarimala at least once are unperturbed by this barrage against our religious tenets or beliefs or culture or traditions and our faith in Lord Ayyappa remains fervid and festooned by his divine blessings.
Taking a trip down the memory lane, I vividly remember my first trip to the holy abode in the 80’s, when I was hardly 6 years or so. Those were the times when Ayyappa was not the messiah for many Tamils, Telegus or Kannadigas and every year the pilgrimage was undertaken by handful of people from Kerala. That also means forests were very pristine and unpolluted and there was a feeling of closeness to the nature when we trek arduously through the forest tract for 2 long hours. Truly stones and thorns were the cushion to legs.
Oh! Those were also the times when River Pamba would be seen swooshing out from the distant dense forest atop the hill and spouting out in her full lush. And a holy dip in Pamba before the trek pulverizes the lethargy and invigorates the spirit on us to start the journey. One of the common sightings in the trek even today are the herds of donkey plodding through the tracts and crossing in our paths, bumping against us and lumbering under the weight of grain and spice bags on their back. Even today donkeys still are the mode of transport of goods. Then for every few steps we can see a bee-hive of pilgrims chanting “Swamiye Ayyappo” walking up or climbing down blithely in the tracts.
As a six year old elders deemed it necessary that my walk be tersely smooth and that my tender foots are to be protected from the gruffly surface underneath. So I was an odd-man out wearing a canvas shoes and climbing. That is not all my pockets were stuffed with packets of Glucovita Glucon-D; for rejuvenating myself time to time during the arduous climb.
Then as years passed; I too matured to be a true Ayyappan imbibing the spirit and pains of this journey wearing black dhoti and a bare unprotected foot scurrying for safe spots amidst the stones and thorns. Then on I was charmed, enticed and basked in the splendor and satisfaction in making this trip chanting solemnly Lord Ayyappa’s name. Truly Lord Ayyappa in his holy abode in the forest fabled my mind year after year.
Like the saying goes “All good things in life come to an end” – my trips to this holy hillock has ended in a grimace. The bee-hives of pilgrims who trudge along the paths have overflowed to tens and thousands and lakhs. Stones and thorns are replaced by concrete paths and the hilltop looks like a big township. And of course the forests bleed under pressure of human explosion. Once what used to be a free-flowing riverine, Pamba has been reduced to kind of a filthy canal. Above all, however resolutely we clung on for His Darshan the crowd and police make sure than we can see Him only for flash of a second.
So that leaves me here, for past few years during this point of time, the sweet thoughts of Sabarimala come flocking to my mind. But I know I cannot go and enjoy and be content if I make a trip now. Of course, the blame is on no one for Lord Ayyappa has grown in stature in the mind of every believer in South India.
But one lingering desire remains – to hear Harivarasanam once in Sannidhanam.
Can it be really Agile?
We will continually refine the design of the system, starting from a very simple beginning. We will remove any flexibility that doesn’t prove useful.
One of the many prophecies of Agile Development Process and in particular XP. I have been trudging the trail of spick-and-span product development for last 1year at least. Although org guidelines fixate a firm waterfall model of development, I have been reading quite a lot on agile processes. Every now and then I tend to cast some aspersions on agile way of development. One thing is it doesn’t scale well on big teams and big organizations. A case in point is development of a module in ERP system. Suppose I am doing Order Management (OM) module; I know upfront that OM depends on Shipping, Pricing, Invoice modules to pick a few. So I need to clean up my interface area with these modules upfront and declare them. My data model for interface with them has to be fixed. I should anticipate the future requirements and design the interface. For a change later in cycle can be really costly and moreover the cost has to be borne by the impacted team and not me.
One of the things which is not always true is that cost of change may not rise dramatically over time as XP suggests. In practical scenarios a cost of change can be significant.
XP makes us believe that cost of change can be flattened if we follow a good test-driven programming. So as per XP daily builds and running automated tests is just enough to absorb this cost of changes. But alas! the reality is much more stark in contrast. After all software development is not just building automated unit test and running it daily to prove code is unbreakable. The underlying design should be flexible enough to accept the changes with minimal impact. Yes that is what XP also says, I know that. We in software world are in constant race against time. So suppose we just design things keeping in mind minimal things which just solves current requirement in hand and a week before deadline of delivery a requirement pokes up which is sort of destabilizing the underlying data model, what can we do? How many managers will have the gumption to take up an overhaul of data model late in the cycle?
I tend to take the argument “We will take away any flexibility that doesn’t prove useful” with a pinch of salt always. If the flexibility is like providing many-to-many relation between two tables compared to one-to-one relation existing today, I accept it. I know the cost of changing from one-to-one to many-to-many is manageable. Suppose I am coding a reporting tool on top of a warehouse, for my graphs I won’t provide all flexibilities like formatting X-Axis, Y-Axis, data points (with different colors, marker shapes etc) if the requirement is not there today. I know the uptake of this late in cycle is not going to destabilize the existing code. If I anticipate a requirement which is going to destabilize my whole code, I believe I should have thought about it at the beginning even though the requirement was not there at that point of time. A late cycle infusion of change can be jittery for the developers, for the management and taking undue pressure on all the parties concerned. As in our case if I am doing Business Intelligence software on top of a warehouse; I guess the design of the warehouse (called dimension modeling) should be done upfront considering all the requirements that are there today or that can be there tomorrow. If we leave holes of flexibility in that which we tend to think can be accommodated tomorrow its sure recipe of disaster. For a late cycle change like adding a new dimension to the warehouse can be impacting the guys who write code to build the warehouse (ETL), the guys who do reporting on top of the warehouse (analytics) and it can be too complicated to incorporate it.
XP can work very well, if I was doing a Library Management System for my College Library. The domain area is quite clear, boundaries are drawn and I don’t expect many dependencies with other systems. XP sulks in a product development environment where you are trying to connect disparate systems and frameworks and are trying to build a solution which you think customer is going to derive value. In a generic product development environment I guess it’s hard to get a customer to sit by you and validate each and every step you take. Well I know this is not a problem of XP, and it also means XP is not the panacea for all software development woes.
Another interesting aspect in XP is Collective Ownership of code. Yes its really worthy if we don’t build silos of specialists and instead carve out jacks of all areas. This is very much practical in the Library Management project in College. In practical cases, each module requires some core strength from the designer or architect involved. I don’t mind if we are just shuffling developers around modules and make them code. But I do believe there should be a owner/architect/designer for a module in a project, who know the historic decisions that have been taken and more importantly why they were taken and shape up the module in elegant way during the due course of time. If we are going to shuffle owners every month, it’s a recipe of acrimony. For in big enterprise systems it’s impossible for a single guy to grasp the complexities and nuances of each and every area make clear decisions. A case in point the warehousing and analytics solution, the ETL itself is so complicated that a guy who has worked in 3 months in analytics module may not find it a cake walk to suddenly switch over one day and chip into ETL and incorporate design changes into it. So the key is having an owner, a pillar for each module who decides how to incorporate changes without setting in entropy. And obviously programmers can be made to code as per specs in different modules. Here again its practically impossible for the person who is coding to take design decisions on the fly when the module he is coding involves 900 classes, each class spanning 100-500 lines. I would expect one guy who has fair deal of idea and handle to these classes and what it does before setting upon a design change.
Having said all these let me not be gushy about the agile way. Automated testing, Test before code, pair programming, adeptness to changes, 40hr work week are all too tempting and sinews of agile way to be hushed away in the background.
So I think it all boils down to the situation in which you are in and obviously it’s a balancing act and judicious mix of agile and waterfall methods which can sweeten your time during the travails of development.
