Cuts through the hype and tells "the other side of the story" about Extreme Programming
Provides a thorough and systematic analysis of XP practices and separates the "agile" from the "fragile"
Proposes better ways of achieving XP's agile goals, applicable to a much wider range of projects

Dear Reader,

Hi from foggy London and sunny Los Angeles . . .

The two of us share a mutual concern that the blaze of hype surrounding Extreme Programming (XP) the past few years has left a thick smoke screen that obscures some very significant weaknesses in this popular development process.

A major problem faced by teams wanting to introduce XP into their organization is that XP requires a significant mind shift in the entire outfit, from the way teams are structured through to the way companies do business with their customers. As such, a key aspect of this book is our proposed refactored process, which incorporates the good stuff from XP but in a less eXtreme fashion. This alternative approach to agility requires much less change in existing organizations, while still retaining XP's agile goals.

We also find some things about XP to be eXtremely funny and, as it happens, we're both fond of satire, so we've tried to take a lighthearted look at some of the wacky, zany (and ever so eXtreme) antics XP suggests.

One important aspect of the book we weren't planning on when we started writing is the numerous "real-life story" contributions from XP practitioners we started to receive when word got out that we were writing this book. We've incorporated these into the chapters as a series of "Voice of eXPerience" segments. In some cases, they're more bizarre than the satire we've written.

Finally, we hope that you'll enjoy "Songs of the Extremos" and "The Emperor's New Code" which help to highlight some of the points we're making in the text.

Who should read this book?

If you're a manager or a customer who is being sold the idea of using XP in your next project, this book provides a useful contrary viewpoint. Conversely, if you're a programmer who is introducing XP into an organization, this book should help because it outlines a lot of the dangers that tend to get brushed over in other XP books, but which can be potential project-killers. If you're tailoring an agile process for your latest project (whether XP or not), this book provides some valuable advice. And if you just want to know why XP is so controversial, find out by reading this equally controversial book!

Take a look for yourself, download a sample chapter from the book here.