Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change

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 wasit 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, theres 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 Becks book: XP is about social change. You should do whatever it takes to ensure that every IT professional and every IT managerall the way up to the CIOhas 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 SoftwareExtreme 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 CouncilIf your organization is ready for a change in the way it develops software, theres 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 ColumbiaSometimes 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...