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Amazon.co.uk 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-sized 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, the author demonstrates how XP relies on simplicity, unit testing, programming in pairs, communal ownership of code and customer input on software for to motivate code improvement during the development process. As the author notes, these principles are not new, but when 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 organisation to adopt XP. This book serves as a useful introduction to the philosophy and practice of XP for the manager or programmer who want a potentially better way to build software. --Richard Dragan, Amazon.com

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

Book Description
Nearly five years after the first edition of this book exploded on to the market,noted software engineering guru and the father of Extreme Programming (XP)Kent Beck provides a fresh look at this controversial topic. XP remains themost popular agile methodology in software development, and many believe itis ideal for small to mid-size development organizations. However, XP is notwithout its detractors. The goal of the book remains to help programmers andteams decide if XP is the right path to pursue. The book offers advice, but doesnot provide a prescriptive, "how to" style format. This Fifth AnniversaryEdition enhances the full knowledge of XP and gives both the advocate andskeptic of XP full detail to move forward with an informed opinion.

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18 Reviews 5 star:  (9) 4 star:  (4) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:  (2) 1 star:  (2)           Average Customer Review (18 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: The first edition, 4 Aug 2005 By  D. Poon - See all my reviews    If you already know XP, you perhaps want to know whether to buy this book. I'll try to answer that question. The first edition of this book marked a watershed in the way I thought about software. I did leave many questions unanswered, however, as our team struggled to implement the practices 'out of the box'. Perhaps a bit too much revolutionary zeal. The breadth of the second edition is far greater. It explains the principles so that you can adapt them to your own circumstances, without subverting their original intent. As such it is a far more usefull book than the first edition, even if it lacks the bold audacity of the former - or maybe the ideas of XP dont seem so left of field anymore.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   18 of 19 people found the following review helpful: Makes you think about the way you write software, 29 Jan 2002 By  michael.hanks@talk21.com (West Yorkshire, England) - See all my reviews This review is from: Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (Paperback) An interesting read on the techniques that Kent Beck has found to work best when developing software. I personally wouldn't see myself adopting XP to the letter. But it does put a perspective on things and makes you doubt the way you do certain things when writing software. Developers need to be reminded that their way is not necessarily the best way and this book provides very useful ideas on how to improve your game. Most of the ideas are appealing because they clearly would make life easier in the long term, but the downside being they require significant change or investment in the short term. This book has definitely inspired me to rethink my way of working. Now all I need to do is implement those ideas...  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?