Extreme Programming Explained Embrace Change

Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, First Edition by KentBeck, AddisonWesley

ISBN 0201616416 Book One in the XpSeries.

Next: ExtremeProgrammingInstalled

Reviewers comments from amazon.com:

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.

Most important software development book this decade!!!, June 25, 2002: I LOVE this book. The first time I heard of this book, I thought my buddy was joking. The title conjured up images of programmer's jumping off bridges with laptops. Needless to say, I did not read the book then (a big mistake). Later, I read it, and I really enjoyed it. My feelings are that this is a good book, but it is not complete. It introduces XP, but it is hard to apply XP with just this book. In my opinion, you need the book PlanningExtremeProgramming by KentBeck, and MartinFowler and this book to start really implementing XP. We implemented XP with just those two books. Don't worry, they are both small books and you could read them both in a weekend. -- Rick Hightower

This book is the JonathanLivingstonSeagull of software engineering. It is freedom, on a mission.

I don't know who had the 'nads to think that any of the kids these days would have known anything about JLS (or how thin and simple it is). But they don't really need to keep clicking on the Not Helpful button if the reviewer was wise enough to not otherwise waste their time with something longer. -- PhlIp

Slashdot

Slashdot has a review of Kent's book at: http://slashdot.org/books/99/12/21/097256.shtml

Talk about praise by association:

"If you're a member of or a manager of a moderate programming team, you ought to read this book. It will go nicely on the shelf next to TheMythicalManMonth."

Dig the clue-less moderator's lead-in:
"...the book is for all those people out there who need to do programming but don't have time to do the engineering phase."

XPE won a SoftwareDevelopmentMagazine JoltProductivityAward in 2000. As of late March, 2000, there are a few ExtremeProgrammingExplainedErrata that should be mentioned.

International editions

Where to buy it:

Paperback - 224 pages 1 edition (October 1, 1999) $29.95 Addison-Wesley Pub Co; ISBN 0201616416

Addison-Wesley address, from the back of the book: http://www.awl.com/cseng/titles/0-201-61641-6

Fatbrain (from SlashDot review, no discount): http://www1.fatbrain.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=0201616416

See also:

As I was talking to TomGilb about ED, XP and stuff like the TheSourceCodeIsTheDesign the other day he strongly advised me to keep design as a much wider concept than the particular choice of constructs we make in programming - though he entirely agrees that the source code is the only valuable and reliable record of these choices.

And I immediately thought: you were right the first time. Refactoring is of the essence of the knowing-by-doing of XP (ExistentialistProgramming). The latest reflection on patterns and refactoring in TooDeepIntoTheBagOfTricks says the same. Keep design for other contexts. Anyway -- RichardDrake

My final take for EC was that "design" is an activity essential to the construction of software, and "refactoring" is how we do design in XP. -- KentBeck

See ExternalAndInternalDesign for some more recent questions about "design" - how we think about it, how our use of the word can become too restrictive and (most important) how we all need to become better at it.

Is this goal of this book to "sell" ExtremeProgramming?

Say you're an influential early adopter- not a techno-crazed toy-slut, but trying to get things done in innovative ways. You hear about XP. You want to know if you should look into it further, maybe even try some stuff. You read the book. You can now make an informed decision.

Is that "selling"? It seems more like a manifesto to me, looking back at it. -- KentBeck

Hmm. Are you saying I can't be a techno-crazed toy-slut and still get things done in innovative ways? :-)

Nah, more a case of I'm an influential early adopter. You're a neophile. He's a techno-crazed toy-slut. -- AndraeMuys

I talked to a world-renowned expert on software development last night about XP, the book and its apparent impact at OOPSLA. Because his comments were just a little too dismissive for my liking I hope Kent will forgive my posting the following two anecdotes about how the book has impacted in my experience so far. (We only recently got it from amazon.co.uk.)

Speaking to a friend who is an economist who has made considerable amounts of money in the last ten years from first teaching himself programming and then writing large transportation applications in C++ and Oracle. Philip has remained a businessman at heart with only a small interest in 'theories' of software development but he dipped into the book for a few minutes during a visit, saying: "It all looks pretty sensible and obvious". I needed to 'get off my chest' how I felt to someone so I replied: "It's not a good book. It's just the most important book about software development ever published." Don't worry, I'm still in therapy.

Interviewing for the second time a young programmer with the best academic and hands-on implementation CV for his age that I have encountered in eleven years of recruitment: "take this book away and if you don't agree with the following pages don't bother to join us". (I don't have it any more to check which pages!)

See also HedgingOnesBets for the problems the book is causing other recent authors of renown.

-- RichardDrake

I'm so proud. I clicked on the button to tell me what videos purchasers of my book were buying. This was the list:

News Flash: 9 November, 2000 issue of Computer Weekly, an IT newspaper in the UK, (http://www.computerweekly.com) contains an article on page 108 entitled 'Twins peak' describing XP as "a discipline which is turning the wisdom of software development on its head." The article describes London-based Connextra's (successful) experiences with XP.

Computer Weekly doesn't carry this anymore, but it can be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20020808074858/http://www.sidewize.com/company/press_cutting.htm#twins -- UrbanNilsson

I found this: http://www.cw360.com/Article24043.htm -- KarlZdero?

There is an attempt at distilling many principles from this book into a set of several statements, for assessing a project's adherence to XP, at XpSelfAssessment.

Everybody involved in software development really should read this book. Everybody should read its bibliography. -- StuartScott

The 2nd edition is out: ExtremeProgrammingExplainedEmbraceChangeSecondEdition.

It appears that the 2nd edition is ISBN 0321278658 . -- JamesStansell

Please note that the 2nd edition describes a new process that is different from the process describes in the first book. It seems, KentBeck has invented a new process (based on his experience with XP) and gave it the same name.

Of course, you can argue whether this was a good move and due to his personal crisis and not being in the community any longer, this is a questionable step of KentBeck. I recommend buying the first edition until there is feedback that the second edition is a real improvement.

I have started a group to discuss the XP practices as described in XP Explained, 2nd Edition. Books should be in stores November 15. In the meantime, I have posted the chapter describing practices in general and the first practice, Sit Together, from the new book. I will add a practice each week. The discussion is open. -- KentBeck

CategoryBook

EditText of this page (last edited October 10, 2009) or FindPage with title or text search