ISBN:0201770059From the Back Cover
Extreme Programming (XP) has been established as a significant departure from traditional software development methods. The success of the XP 2001 and XP Universe 2001 conferences is no surprise; some of the brightest minds in software engineering gathered at these venues to discuss the discipline that is XP. These conferences showcase the continuously changing face of XP. Common programming practices will never be the same, and developers and business people alike need to bear this fact in mind as they plan for the future.
Inspired by the techniques and challenges explored at these conferences, Extreme Programming Perspectives presents 47 articles that represent the insights and practical wisdom of the leaders of the XP community. Encompassing a wide variety of key topics on XP and other agile methodologies, this book offers experience-based techniques for implementing XP effectively and provides successful transitioning strategies. Articles are grouped into six main sections: an overview of XP and agile methodologies; XP development practices; issues involved in transitioning to XP and agile methodologies; real-life experiences of working with XP; tools for facilitating XP development; and finally, ideas for expanding and extending XP.
You will find such outstanding articles as:
The contributions in this book comprise the best practices in Extreme Programming across a number of industries. Those already involved in XP development, or anyone interested in transitioning to this flexible approach, will find this book a fascinating and valuable resource for leveraging the power of XP and agile methodologies.
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Reviews From AMAZON.COM
for potential or early-stage adopters of xp
Extreme Programming Perspectives is a useful book for those who are considering adopting XP or who are in the process of adopting XP. Two themes that run through the book are (a) simple is not the same as simplistic and (b) complex behavior can result from the interaction of simple rules. While neither of these principles is surprising, it is important to keep them in mind when reading this book. The essays contained here cover situations where XP users have tried changing or customizing the rules at the foundation of XP and their experiences with the resulting behavior.
For those considering adopting XP, this book discusses projects where XP was tried, not always successfully, that provide food for thought when considering XP in your own environment. It also contains marketing material aimed at persuading your management to try agile methods. The marketing material ranges from anecdotal to very concrete mathematical and scientific studies. The anecdotal material is nothing not available elsewhere, but the more concrete essays may prove useful to some.
For those in the process of adopting XP, this book discusses strategies that have been used to sell XP to developers and to encourage them to adopt the principles of agile methods. Personally, I found these essays to be the most important in the book. Not only have I not seen much similar material elsewhere, I have never encountered the difficulties selling XP to management that I have in selling XP to developers. The essays in this section cover ways that the rules of XP can be bent or modified to be more palatable and ways that the rules can be introduced slowly in a team environment. As is true throughout the book, not all these experiences are positive.
XP Perspectives is a large book, and not all the essays are equally valuable. In particular, roughly 10% of the book discusses XP in an academic environment. This isnft really surprising given the backgrounds of the editors but it doesnft seem relevant to those I would consider the primary audience of this book. There are also a few chapters that are clearly written by someone with something to gsellh and these are frankly annoying. While there is some acknowledgement of other agile methods, this book really is XP-centric and Ifm not sure I would recommend it to someone already in the process of adopting a non-XP agile methodology.
On the whole, however, I would recommend this book to those beginning to adopt XP or considering adopting XP. It doesnft preach to the choir so much as some other XP books and it discusses experiences both positive and negative (well, ok, more positive than negative). As such it will give the reader a lot to think about.