What is Extreme Programming and How does it Work ?
Fred Tingey ***
Head of Risk IT, BNP Paribas
The last few years has seen the rise of Agile and
Iterative development methodologies as practical alternatives
to the more traditional Waterfall method of analysis, design, build,
test and deploy. The adoption of Agile methodologies has been driven by
the lack of success of the Waterfall approach in actually delivering
software systems; empirical evidence giving at best a 25% success
rate for smaller developments decreasing as the size of the project increases.
Extreme Programming (XP) is an example of an Agile development methodology
based on best practices distilled from development teams working on projects that
have been successful. The word 'extreme' is used because
XP takes each best practice (often things you know you should do but don't)
takes it to the limit and makes it mandatory. This presentation will
provide an introduction to these best practices and to reassure you
it is not just theory show some real examples of their actual use in BNP Paribas.
*** Biography:
Fred Tingey has been working in financial IT for the past 15 years
primarily in the Derivatives trading and risk management areas. He is
currently head of Risk IT for BNP Paribas Capital Markets covering Market,
Credit and Operational risk along with Collateral management. Fred
discovered a passion for programming at a fairly young age with the ZX81.
After taking some time out to study Physics at Oxford he returned to his
favourite subject studying Computer Science at Edinburgh.
Fred's first role was in a small software company based in Cambridge
producing Derivatives Pricing Systems for the City. This enabled him to
combine the mathematics of pricing models with the challenges of
programming trading systems - and then going to sell them. His move into
the City came some four years after where he was head of Fixed Income
Derivatives IT for SG Warburg. He has worked at BNP Paribas for the last
10 years taking on a variety of roles including Head of Equity Derivatives
IT and for 2 years Head of Application Development in New York. Upon
returning to London this was followed, after the merger of Paribas and BNP,
by another 2 year posting to Paris again working in Equity Derivatives.
Fred is now back in London and Head of Risk IT for BNP Paribas - a position
he has held for the last two years.
Throughout his career Fred has had an ongoing interest in the software
development process and has had the opportunity to try out many different
approaches and to evaluate what works and what does not. There is no doubt
in his mind that Agile methodologies are the only professional approach to
software development.
