Kent Beck, Series Advisor

Extreme Programming, familiarly known as XP, is a discipline of the business of software development that focuses the whole team on common, reachable goals. Using the values and principles of XP, teams apply appropriate XP practices in their own context. XP practices are chosen for their encouragement of human creativity and their acceptance of human frailty. XP teams produce quality software at a sustainable pace.

One of the goals of XP is to bring accountability and transparency to software development, to run software development like any other business activity. Another goal is to achieve outstanding results—more effective and efficient development with far fewer defects than is currently expected. Finally, XP aims to achieve these goals by celebrating and serving the human needs of everyone touched by software development—sponsors, managers, testers, users, and programmers.

The XP series exists to explore the myriad variations in applying XP. While XP began as a methodology addressing small teams working on internal projects, teams worldwide have used XP for shrink-wrap, embedded, and large-scale projects as well. The books in the series describe how XP applies in these and other situations, addressing both technical and social concerns.

Change has come to software development. However, change can be seen as an opportunity, not a threat. With a plan for change, teams can harness this opportunity to their benefit. XP is one such plan for change.