This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Keith Ray. Original Post: Specification by Example and Surprises Feed Title: MemoRanda Feed URL: http://homepage.mac.com/1/homepage404ErrorPage.html Feed Description: Keith Ray's notes to be remembered on agile software development, project management, oo programming, and other topics. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Keith Ray Latest Posts From MemoRanda

If you view XP's acceptance/customer tests and "unit"/programmer tests as specification by example, then the difficulties some game developers have experienced trying to use XP make more sense. "Game Play" is a subjective experience that is very difficult to quantify -- I'm talking about fast-paced first-person-shooter video-games, not solitaire. Part of a good game-playing experience would be the player's anticipation of what comes next, but being pleasantly surprised when it happens differently than expected.

This lesson -- "the anticipation of what comes next, but being pleasantly surprised when it happens differently than expected" -- is one I'm learning at the writer's workshop I'm attending.