Don: Here they come, Howard, and XP is coming out swinging! XP is throwing its "Daily Stand Up Meeting" punch. The stand up meeting is when the entire team gets together briefly every morning to discuss the latest issues. The meeting includes the business people assigned to the project.

Howard: Look at Freedom, he's backing off! Freedom's coach is going to the ref. What's he telling the ref? Maybe Peter, our ringside reporter, can tell us what's going on.

Peter: This is Peter at ringside. Hang on, Howard, while I get closer to the conversation between the ref and Freedom's coach... Wow! Get this. The coach is petitioning the ref to nullify this round because Freedom is strictly a technical methodology, and getting different types of people working together is a management-related principle. The coach is claiming this principle is addressed by whatever management methodology is selected for use in concert with Freedom, but Freedom has not been assigned a management methodology partner here today. So the round should not count.

Howard: Unbelievable! Thanks, Peter.

Don: I knew it, Howard. Freedom is all smoke. XP is beckoning Freedom to get in the middle and fight.

Howard: The ref is agreeing with XP, and is telling Freedom to get in there. There he goes. Ouch!

Don: XP is really beating up Freedom on this one, Howard. Look, Freedom isn't even trying to throw a punch. I guess he really doesn't have much in the way of management moves. Freedom is deferring the whole issue to XP. Oww!

Howard: There's the bell. End of round 1. Freedom is going to the ref again. He's claiming that if this were a fair fight, he'd be paired with a specialized management methodology which would have knocked XP down on this principle, so the decision should go to Freedom. Sounds like there could be some logic to that, Don.

Don: Maybe so, Howard, but the ref isn't buying it. The ruling is that this match is XP against Freedom straight up. Here's the signal -- round 1 to XP!

Howard: I'm wondering what the outcome would have been had this been a tag team match. If Freedom is really trained to operate as the technical member of a technical-management methodology pair, the combination of two specialized methodologies could be really formidable. How would XP fare in a methodology tag team match?

Don: Well, Howard, XP is a stand-alone methodology. It has both technical and management moves. It may resent having to share its corner with another methodology. To do so would be to admit either its technical or management jabs could be inferior to something else. Most of these methodologies are pretty pugnacious and don't like to share turf, Howard.

Howard: But apparently not Freedom. He looked absolutely wimpy in there against XP's Stand Up Meeting punches. I'll bet Freedom would have welcomed the help of a partner methodology in fostering technical and business team communication. One thing's for certain; these two contenders are certainly different!

Don: Right! But in this straight up bout, the differences have so far been to XP's advantage. Ok, I think we are about ready for round 2.