How to Get the Most out of Extreme Programming/Agile Methods

Short Description
This paper reports the results of an analysis of thirty-one extreme programming (XP)/agile methods early adopter projects completed by fourteen firms who have embraced the techniques in the form of lessons learned. The survey results show that early adopters have cut costs, improved productivity and reduced time to market through the use of these methods. To get the most from these methods, fifteen lessons learned have been developed that build on the experiences of others. Several of these lessons run counter to the teachings of the methodology developers. The paper next provides a scorecard that rates XP’s performance in eight application domains. The paper concludes by summarizing four critical success factors for early adopters.

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Content
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The software industry seems to be embracing yet another change in the way it does business. Because of their emphasis on agility and time-to-market, many software shops have made the move to extreme programming/agile methods. Such methods focus on building working products instead of the documents and formal reviews that are frequently used to demonstrate progress in more classical developments. To implement these methods adherents embrace XP practices like pair programming, refactoring and collective code ownership to generate their products. These releases, which are working versions of the product, not prototypes, are used to demonstrate functions and features to stakeholders who help shape their form through refactoring [1] and continuous integration. Initial reports from the field from early adopters about extreme programming/agile methods are encouraging. However, as is the case with anything new, some practices work better than others and some don’t seem to work well at all. The purpose of this paper is to address what works in practice by summarizing the initial experiences of early adopters in the form of lessons learned. The paper’s goal is to help those contemplating the move to XP/agile methods to take advantage of the experience of others as they try to use these practices productively.
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