|
Questioning Extreme Programming
 |
Author: Pete McBreen
List Price: $29.99
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0201844575
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co (19 July, 2002)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 163,527
Average Customer Rating: 3.17 out of 5
|
Customer ReviewsRating: 3 out of 5
hmmmmmmmm.. OK!
In Questioning Extreme Programming, the book helps you answer such questions:* Is the cost of change really low?
* Does XP do proper testing?
* Does XP make sense?
* Is XP a return to the dark ages?
* What can other approaches learn from XP?
* Do you need process improvement or process change ?
* Why are developers so zealous about adopting XP?
* Is XP suitable for your projects?
* What is the next step after Extreme Programming? After reading this thought-provoking book, software developers can make an informed decision about Extreme Programming, and whether it is suitable for their organization. Readers will also be able to determine whether Extreme Programming is inappropriate for their project. Discover for yourself. Look past the hype, and start asking the hard questions about how software is built!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Entertaining debunking of XP mythos, but not concrete enough
The biggest thing I liked was that it didn't just focus on XP, but also hit on a lot of other methodologies, doing some comparisons and contrasts. Expect to understand what all the hubub is about after going through it, without needing to buy into any of the other Agile background books first. You will probably also be able to take away a high-level piece or two of advice from it.It's not something I would purchase, though, because it stays pretty high-level through much of the book, and doesn't really have much reference material value. I was also a bit dismayed that he hadn't run a project with XP yet. He cheerfully admitted it in the introduction, and his reviewers were all of the hardcore folks associated with XP; however, that still gave me the same feeling as I would get reading a book entitled Questioning Low-Fat Recipies from the Two Fat Ladies, where they claimed they'd never tried any. Sure, they're FAR better cooks than I am. And probably see more different types of recipies in a given week than I will in a year. But I just would get the feeling I might be missing the whole picture and that too many of the judgements are value-laden and not backed by concrete examples of things that went wrong in his XP projects. Also, it was weird for a book this small, but I felt like it repeated itself in a couple of the 'summary' end of chapter sections, especially near the end of the book.
Rating: 3 out of 5
explains XP jargon, but doesn't support its assertions
I found the book Questioning Extreme Programming to provide a good explanation of XP for people who don't already know its jargon.However, Pete's assertion that XP only works in a certain niche of possible project-types isn't supported in the book -- the assertion is made many times, but no real evidence is presented. Since there are many successful projects out there doing XP, the niche must not be as small as Pete says. I agree with one point from another (not yet published) book on agile software development: XP can provide a great improvement in software quality in those companies that don't already have a good development process. If your company has a good development process with acceptible agility and good enough results, you don't need to change what you do.
Similar Products
· Planning Extreme Programming
· Testing Extreme Programming
· Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
· Extreme Programming Applied: Playing to Win
· Test Driven Development: By Example
|
