Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Kent Beck's eXtreme Programming eXplained provides an intriguing high-level overview of the author's Extreme Programming (XP) software development methodology. Written for IS managers, project leaders, or programmers, this guide provides a glimpse at the principles behind XP and its potential advantages for small- to mid-size software development teams.

The book intends to describe what XP is, its guiding principles, and how it works. Simply written, the book avoids case studies and concrete details in demonstrating the efficacy of XP. Instead, it demonstrates how XP relies on simplicity, unit testing, programming in pairs, communal ownership of code, and customer input on software to motivate code improvement during the development process. As the author notes, these principles are not new, but when they're combined their synergy fosters a new and arguably better way to build and maintain software. Throughout the book, the author presents and explains these principles, such as "rapid feedback" and "play to win," which form the basis of XP.

Generally speaking, XP changes the way programmers work. The book is good at delineating new roles for programmers and managers who Beck calls "coaches." The most striking characteristic of XP is that programmers work in pairs, and that testing is an intrinsic part of the coding process. In a later section, the author even shows where XP works and where it doesn't and offers suggestions for migrating teams and organizations over to the XP process.

In the afterword, the author recounts the experiences that led him to develop and refine XP, an insightful section that should inspire any organization to adopt XP. This book serves as a useful introduction to the philosophy and practice of XP for the manager or programmer who wants a potentially better way to build software. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Extreme Programming (XP) software methodology, principles, XP team roles, facilities design, testing, refactoring, the XP software lifecycle, and adopting XP. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

"In this second edition of Extreme Programming Explained, Kent Beck organizes and presents five years' worth of experiences, growth, and change revolving around XP. If you are seriously interested in understanding how you and your team can start down the path of improvement with XP, you must read this book." --Francesco Cirillo, Chief Executive Officer, XPLabs S.R.L. "The first edition of this book told us what XP was--it changed the way many of us think about software development. This second edition takes it farther and gives us a lot more of the 'why' of XP, the motivations and the principles behind the practices. This is great stuff. Armed with the 'what' and the 'why,' we can now all set out to confidently work on the 'how': how to run our projects better, and how to get agile techniques adopted in our organizations." --Dave Thomas, The Pragmatic Programmers LLC "This book is dynamite! It was revolutionary when it first appeared a few years ago, and this new edition is equally profound.For those who insist on cookbook checklists, there's an excellent chapter on 'primary practices,' but I urge you to begin by truly contemplating the meaning of the opening sentence in the first chapter of Kent Beck's book: 'XP is about social change. ' You should do whatever it takes to ensure that every IT professional and every IT manager--all the way up to the CIO--has a copy of Extreme Programming Explained on his or her desk." --Ed Yourdon, author and consultant "XP is a powerful set of concepts for simplifying the process of software design, development, and testing. It is about minimalism and incrementalism, which are especially useful principles when tackling complex problems that require a balance of creativity and discipline." --Michael A. Cusumano, Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management, and author of The Business of Software"Extreme Programming Explained is the work of a talented and passionate craftsman. Kent Beck has brought together a compelling collection of ideas about programming and management that deserves your full attention. My only beef is that our profession has gotten to a point where such common-sense ideas are labeled 'extreme.'..."--Lou Mazzucchelli, Fellow, Cutter Business Technology Council"If your organization is ready for a change in the way it develops software, there's the slow incremental approach, fixing things one by one, or the fast track, jumping feet first into Extreme Programming. Do not be frightened by the name, it is not that extreme at all. It is mostly good old recipes and common sense, nicely integrated together, getting rid of all the fat that has accumulated over the years." --Philippe Kruchten, UBC, Vancouver, British Columbia"Sometimes revolutionaries get left behind as the movement they started takes on a life of its own. In this book, Kent Beck shows that he remains ahead of the curve, leading XP to its next level. Incorporating five years of feedback, this book takes a fresh look at what it takes to develop better software in less time and for less money. There are no silver bullets here, just a set of practical principles that, when used wisely, can lead to dramatic improvements in software development productivity."--Mary Poppendieck, author of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit "Kent Beck has revised his classic book based on five more years of applying and teaching XP. He shows how the path to XP is both easy and hard: It can be started with fewer practices, and yet it challenges teams to go farther than ever." --William Wake, independent consultant "With new insights, wisdom from experience, and clearer explanations of the art of Extreme Programming, this edition of Beck's classic will help many realize the dream of outstanding software development. " --Joshua Kerievsky, author of Refactoring to Patterns and Founder, Industrial Logic, Inc."XP has changed the way our industry thinks about software development. Its brilliant simplicity, focused execution, and insistence on fact-based planning over speculation have set a new standard for software delivery." --David Trowbridge, Architect, Microsoft Corporation Accountability. Transparency. Responsibility. These are not words that are often applied to software development.In this completely revised introduction to Extreme Programming (XP), Kent Beck describes how to improve your software development by integrating these highly desirable concepts into your daily development process. The first edition of Extreme Programming Explained is a classic. It won awards for its then-radical ideas for improving small-team development, such as having developers write automated tests for their own code and having the whole team plan weekly. Much has changed in five years.This completely rewritten second edition expands the scope of XP to teams of any size by suggesting a program of continuous improvement based on: *Five core values consistent with excellence in software development *Eleven principles for putting those values into action *Thirteen primary and eleven corollary practices to help you push development past its current business and technical limitations Whether you have a small team that is already closely aligned with your customers or a large team in a gigantic or multinational organization, you will find in these pages a wealth of ideas to challenge, inspire, and encourage you and your team members to substantially improve your software development. You will discover how to: *Involve the whole team--XP style *Increase technical collaboration through pair programming and continuous integration *Reduce defects through developer testing *Align business and technical decisions through weekly and quarterly planning *Improve teamwork by setting up an informative, shared workspace You will also find many other concrete ideas for improvement, all based on a philosophy that emphasizes simultaneously increasing the humanity and effectiveness of software development. Every team can improve. Every team can begin improving today. Improvement is possible--beyond what we can currently imagine. Extreme Programming Explained, Second Edition, offers ideas to fuel your improvement for years to come.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (November 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321278658
• ISBN-13: 978-0321278654
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,346 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A clear and balanced treatment of XP., November 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (Paperback)

A few years ago, Nathaniel Borenstein wrote a fine little book called "Programming as if People Mattered", which is mostly about user interface design. It's almost a shame that the title has been used, because it's also an apt description of Kent Beck's new book. This is a development methodology that acknowledges that developers matter, and that customers matter, too. And they matter in both good and bad ways: Extreme Programming acknowledges that people have rights and strengths, but also that they have weaknesses, and it works with those weaknesses rather than against them. This is a welcome contrast to most of the mainstream software methodologies, where only the methodology seems to matter.

Beck and the other Extreme Programming advocates have been in "evangelism mode" of late, and their zeal has occasionally seemed excessive. This book, though, is well-reasoned and balanced. The limitations of XP are freely acknowledged, and Beck argues that in some cases and situations, XP is probably not appropriate. His goal, as the title states, is to explain XP, to help readers understand it so that they can decide whether it's for them. I think he succeeds completely.

For such important material, the book is light and easy to read. It's also short and direct. Spend a day or two reading this book, and then spend a week or two thinking about its recommendations in light of your current project. You owe it to all of the people associated with your project who matter.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book will change the way software is developed, October 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (Paperback)

This book will challenge your preconceptions about how software should be developed. It is a direct challenge to the old way of software development where we talked about "Freezing Requirements". It asks us to use the power of Object technology to Embrace Change instead.

Extreme Programming is a methodology that allows developers and customers to work together in a synergistic manner. It takes the idea of Incremental and Iterative development and shows how to effectively apply it in the real world to produce business value.

This book explains how small teams of developers can work together using a set of self reinforcing practices that enable great productivity and quality.

It is about time that a developer has written a book that questions the high ceremony, document centric software development methodologies. What we need is a balance between developer friendly practices such as testing your ideas out using code (often derided as "hacking"), and the need a business has of knowing that their investment in the software will pay off. Not all problem domains will benefit from eXtreme Programming, but that is true of any methodology (and at least eXtreme Programming is up front about the need to check if the process is applicable).

To those critics that accuse this book of promoting hacking and ignoring all we have learnt about how to develop software, I suggest that it is time to apply scientific thinking. Try some experiments with your current process, then try some eXtreme Programming experiments and see which give the best results.

In summary, a Great Book, Buy it, Read it, Think about applying the lessons of eXtreme Programming.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new approach to software development, June 23, 2000

By	Kevin W. Parker (Greenbelt, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (Paperback)

This approach to programming was much bandied about and a little controversial at a software engineering conference I recently attended. Beck's premise is to take proven good practices in software development and max them out:

- if code reviews are good, do code reviews constantly by having another programmer look over your shoulder.

- if testing is good, write your test plans first and then test each time you implement another feature

- if integration is good, integrate almost constantly so that the system always works

The underlying premise is that the old, familiar cost curve that says it costs a thousand times as much to fix a mistake in the testing phase as in the requirements phase is no longer accurate: we have much better tools now than when that curve was formulated, we're living in Internet time, and the customers don't know what the heck they want anyway. So we might as well go ahead and try to give them something, then fix it up later, rather than trying to divine their goals now.

The problem I see with this is that there's not much time allowed for doing analysis and design. Beck specifically counsels against trying to anticipate capabilities, but if you know what you're doing, anticipating capabilities can save you a lot of time down the line. (His rejoinder is that it can also cost you a lot of time in implementing and debugging features that don't work and may never be used.) No matter how clever you may be, doing design as you code seems to me to be one cut above the worst sort of hacking.

Still, there are some marvelous ideas in here: pair coding sounds intriguing, writing test plans first is a must-have, and I've always held the position that the system should be constantly integrated, that there should never be a big push at the end to get all the pieces to fit together.

He also has other, related advice: developers should not work overtime for more than one week in a row (that's a way to become less productive, not more), you should have a customer representative onsite with the programming team to answer lesser questions about how to implement capabilities, and so on.

In summary, this book is very worthwhile for anyone who wants to improve their software development practices (and who doesn't have problems with their software development practices?). It's particularly good if you're in an environment where the customer wants a quick response to what they want when they want it even as they're not sure what they want. I wouldn't recommend adopting the approach wholeheartedly and automatically (and neither would Beck), but take what makes sense and go from there. As Beck himself says, figure out where your biggest problem is and adopt XP practices there first.