XP Revisited: Part 1

I got hold of the second edition of Kent Beck's seminal work "Extreme Programming Explained" and am now making my way through it (again).

Although the 2nd edition was published in 2005, I figured given changes over time that I would look at how it has changed and also how people have implemented XP in retrospect (effectively feedback).

I read the first edition of this book back in 2002 and thought that it was the biggest load of codswallop I had ever read and still do. The practises it advocated were certainly no better than I was already using (in some cases they were significantly worse) and there was such a lot of ambiguity, contradiction and conjecture that I felt like I had really wasted my time reading it.

So I didn't hold out much hope for the second edition. Reviewers had criticised the book for deviating too much from the original, not being specific and indeed recommended the original copy be found.

However, having got so far into it, it has become clear through some of the rewrite that our industry, which has worn the 'agile' badge for so long and the critics who so vehemently defend XP against other methods and claim to work in that way, are fundamentally wrong in their implementation of the principles and practises.

I am surprised to now be sat defending Kent's principles presented in the book. It has validated my stance that the problem with 'agility' is the manifestation of it in industry and not necessarily the method.

People claiming to be agile are simply not employing the principles as stated in the book. However, I shall defer judgement long enough to finished the book, just in case I have to report on 'embracing change' in the tone or inference of the author.

Watch this space!