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 needed 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. Students 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.
The Extreme Programming (XP) paradigm has developers doing things like programming in pairs, writing tests to verify all code, and continuously refactoring designs for improved performance. Written by two of its inventors,
Planning Extreme Programming shows you how to implement XP by using a simple, effective process. This remarkably short (yet remarkably useful) title will give any XP manager or programmer a perspective on delivering software that meets the needs of customers better.
Simplicity is the watchword of the XP software process. This book is virtually devoid of traditional software-engineering jargon and design diagrams, and yet does a good job of laying the foundation of how to perform XP--which is all about working with a customer to deliver features incrementally.
The terminology in the book is commonsensical. (In the terms of XP, each iteration adds certain new features, or stories. It's up to the customer to decide what functionality is more important and will be delivered first. By never letting a working build get out of sight, the XP process virtually ensures that software will be close to what the customer wants.)
Early chapters borrow analogies from everyday experience--like planning a trip or driving a car--to set the stage for XP process planning. The book has plenty of advice for dealing with the stakeholders (customers) of a project. Because of confidentiality agreements, however, we don't get many details from the real world, although the discussion is anchored by a hypothetical project for planning the Web site of the future for travel, with some specifics.
There is plenty of advice for planning projects, based on individual and team "velocity" (a measure of productivity) and the like--practical suggestions for running daily, short status meetings (in which all of the participants stand up, to keep them short). Clearly, there's a culture that surrounds many XP teams, and this text does a good job of conveying some of this to the reader.
At fewer than 150 pages, Planning Extreme Programming is notably concise, and that's probably the whole point. Most shops today work on Internet time, which doesn't wait for extensive project analysis and design documents. In XP, you create working software from the very start. This book is an essential guide to anyone who's working in XP shops or who might be interested in what this innovative, iterative software process can offer. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered:
- Introduction to planning
- Risk management in software
- "Driving" as a metaphor for software development
- Roles for software development: business vs. technical people
- Four variables for project planning: cost, quality, time, and scope
- Predicting future programmer productivity, based on past performance
- Project scope and estimation
- The XP process: software releases, iterations, stories, collecting, and writing stories (features)
- Hints for ordering features
- Tips on planning and status meetings
- Using visual graphs to monitor project progress
- Tracking and fixing bugs
- Project red flags
