Product Description

In this timely follow-up to Extreme Programming Explained, software engineering gurus Kent Beck and Martin Fowler show exactly how to plan your next software project using Extreme Programming (XP). Planning is a vital element of software development -- but all too often, planning stops when coding begins. Beck and Fowler show how to make software projects far more manageable through a series of simple planning steps every project manager and team leader can easily perform >every day. The book follows XP projects from start to finish, presenting successful planning tactics managers and team leaders can use to adjust to changing environments more quickly and efficiently than ever before. This book is full of war stories and real-world analogies, and offers actionable techniques on virtually every page. It will be invaluable for every project manager called upon to deliver reliable, high-value code in "Internet time."

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #421044 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Programming continues to refuse to be engineering. This is why there are so many cancelled projects, cost and time overruns and customer dissatisfaction. Planning Extreme Programming offers a way to run small-to-medium size programming projects in such a way as to produce the required product on time and to budget.

To achieve this the authors focus away from complex, report-led planning to a people-oriented process which treats programming like a craft project. Extreme Programming starts by recognising reality: start right and you'll finish right. In fact the authors specifically argue against overtime, increasing manpower on late projects and other such attempts to increase productivity as evidence of failure. They start by breaking projects into stories (or features), insist on customer involvement, iterate relentlessly over a timescale of weeks, set short-term targets based on the evidence of previous iterations and--in a break with traditional practices--absolutely insist on customer involvement at every stage, including signing off each story.

The claimed results of applying the XP approach is a better product with fewer bugs as well as the ability to meet agreed deadlines and budgets. Pretty impressive claims for a book that reads like a set of obvious, common-sense rules. Astonishingly, the only planning tool required is a box of index cards and the right attitude. You are even recommended to avoid spreadsheets. Perhaps, then, the real success of Extreme Programming rests on its implicit acknowledgement that programming is a craft, and not engineering. What can you say? It works. Read it and then implement it. -- Steve Patient

From the Publisher
The complete guide to planning your next XP software project
In this timely follow-up to Extreme Programming Explained, software engineering gurus Kent Beck and Martin Fowler show exactly how to plan your next software project using Extreme Programming (XP). Planning is a vital element of software development -- but all too often, planning stops when coding begins. Beck and Fowler show how to make software projects far more manageable through a series of simple planning steps every project manager and team leader can easily perform >every day. The book follows XP projects from start to finish, presenting successful planning tactics managers and team leaders can use to adjust to changing environments more quickly and efficiently than ever before. This book is full of war stories and real-world analogies, and offers actionable techniques on virtually every page. It will be invaluable for every project manager called upon to deliver reliable, high-value code in "Internet time."

- Essential techniques for taming projects on "Internet time!"

- Easy steps managers can perform every day to keep XP projects under control and headed in the right direction.

- An enjoyable, quick read -- full of ideas that apply in any project, software-related or not!

From the Back Cover

"XP is the most important movement in our field today. I predict that it will be as essential to the present generation as the S.E.I. and its Capability Maturity Model were to the last."

--From the foreword by Tom DeMarco

The hallmarks of Extreme Programming--constant integration and automated testing, frequent small releases that incorporate continual customer feedback, and a teamwork approach--make it an exceptionally flexible and effective approach to software development. Once considered radical, Extreme Programming (XP) is rapidly becoming recognized as an approach particularly well-suited to small teams facing vague or rapidly changing requirements--that is, the majority of projects in today's fast-paced software development world.

Within this context of flexibility and rapid-fire changes, planning is critical; without it, software projects can quickly fall apart. Written by acknowledged XP authorities Kent Beck and Martin Fowler, Planning Extreme Programming presents the approaches, methods, and advice you need to plan and track a successful Extreme Programming project. The key XP philosophy: Planning is not a one-time event, but a constant process of reevaluation and course-correction throughout the lifecycle of the project.

You will learn how planning is essential to controlling workload, reducing programmer stress, increasing productivity, and keeping projects on track. Planning Extreme Programming also focuses on the importance of estimating the cost and time for each user story (requirement), determining its priority, and planning software releases accordingly.

Specific topics include:

• Planning and the four key variables: cost, quality, time, and scope
• Deciding how many features to incorporate into a release
• Estimating scope, time, and effort for user stories
• Prioritizing user stories
• Balancing the business value and technical risk of user stories
• Rebuilding the release plan based on customer and programmer input
• Choosing the iteration length
• Tracking an iteration
• What to do when you're not going to make the date
• Dealing with bugs
• Making changes to the team
• Outsourcing
• Working with business contracts

In addition, this book alerts you to the red flags that signal serious problems: customers who won't make decisions, growing defect reports, failing daily builds, and more. An entire chapter is devoted to war stories from the trenches that illustrate the real-world problems many programmers encounter and the solutions they've devised.

0201710919B04062001

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Customer Reviews

Essential reading for all professional software engineers
This is the first book on software planning which I've found to be an entertaining read, as well as presenting valuable information and ideas. Even better, it's short enough to read in an evening. The perspective is very much on improving the interface between techies and business people, an area which is weak in most organisations. The mood is practical (aggressively so!) rather than theoretical; this is a book which might genuinely change some of the ways we work. If it turns out that XP is not for you (it won't suit all environments, for sure) then you should at least understand it so that you reject it for the right reasons.

An excellent advisory for managers or team leads
If you need guidance on rolling out the "management" of extreme programming within and to organisations... Its a light read, but one that you can return to again for inspiration and courage. The stories speak to the heart of anyone who has worked on software development and wondered why it doesn't always turn out as planned...

The fundamental principle behind the XP approach to all projects and development is to use the simplest possible working interaction model. Beck & Fowler have arrived at the conclusion that simple models are the only way to scale software engineering capacity and capability. They assert that this approach will work effectively over long periods of time without introducing pathologies that kill the innovation and empowerment that are hallmarks of creativity based information industry.

Beck's hidden agenda appears to be that by building simple self-similar (benign) operational systems, which in turn produce powerful coherent behaviour; this in turn empowers and allows creativity, innovation and personal growth.

slim and low on content
This book is not large. It contains advice as to how to run software projects, some of which is obvious and intuitive, some of which is counterintuitive and quite possibly counterproductive. A depressing read.