Are most non-secret software development methodologies “red herrings”, designed to mislead competitors?

Wouldn’t a credible software developer need to keep their


software development methodology secret, so as not to be ousted by a competitor.





(This is not to criticise "extreme programming" which breaks the above rule because it's obviously the correct way to develop software, and it's not secret)

Are most non-secret software development methodologies “red herrings”, designed to mislead competitors?
This is a bizzare thought...if this was the case credibility could not be measured simply by the methodolgy used by the developer. So keep the secret, it does not matter. The methodology is a process to be followed to improve quality but the final products quality generally depends on the developers expertise in severaly areas - architecture %26amp; design, programming language, business specific knowledge, ability to communicate and work in a team, etc.
Reply:A methodology does not tell you what code to write. What you're saying is like saying that if you take a few classes in creative writing then you can write as good a novel as any bestselling author, which is clearly not the case.





Programming is not religion - there is no one true way to write software, extreme or otherwise. Rather there are things you can do to improve the likely quality of a programmers work but at the end of the day if you don't understand basic coding principles like logic, algorithms and data structures then your software will be poor. Even a good methodology like XP doesn't work for all people, you have to use a methodology which works for the programmer.

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