The most important technological changes of the last century were those centered around the invention of electronic computers. These changes are largely due to the monumental improvements that have occurred in computer hardware. It is hard to believe the incredible advances made in the 60 years since the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) first ran. This fast pace is reflected in Moore’s Law, a reference to an observation made by Gordon Moore in 1965 about the rate of growth in the number of transistors per integrated circuit.

Improvements in computer software have been significantly more modest. There is nothing comparable to Moore’s Law for the progress in software technology, but there have been advances. From the earliest patch-panel programming, software development has benefited from higherlevel languages and the related tools. There have been improvements in methodologies such as structured programming and object-oriented programming as well.

eXtreme Programming—or XP, as its practitioners refer to it—focuses on the people and the processes that people use. This focus is important because to people in business—that is, the people who pay for it—software development has become synonymous with “late and over budget.” The approach taken by XP represents a new set of attitudes about what is important.

These attitudes and ways of working are part of a new success formula of which every software developer ought to be aware and about which they ought to learn. These attitudes are part of a cooperative, customer-oriented focus that is important not just to programmers but also to anyone in modern society who wants to prosper. Readers will find these same attitudes in such classic business books as Tom Peters’ In Search of Excellence (Warner Books, Inc. 1984), and in Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People (Free Press 2003).

Attitudes, however, are not enough because software development is a profession with a history and its own obstacles. The application of a customer focus to software development is found in the world of XP. The cooperative, team-oriented spirit is one that is at the core of XP.

In his book, Dr. Neil Roodyn takes you into this world with practical examples and real-world exercises. He shares his passion for XP with a hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves approach. If you like to write code, you will like this book. If you love to learn practical new ways to solve old problems, then you will love this book. Dr. Neil makes the tenets of XP clear and comprehensible as well as approachable and usable in the everyday world.