Extreme programming explained - embrace change

I almost didn’t write this review. Extreme Programming (XP) and the whole agile software development movement are somewhat controversial, especially around Rational where the RUP is the party line. I certainly didn’t want to make a career-limiting move by advocating a software development methodology contrary to the one embraced by Rational! ☺ The perception (at least in some circles) seems to be that the RUP and XP are opposing forces in the ongoing debate over the best way to build software. This isn’t completely true. After reading John Smith’s excellent white paper in the RUP titled “A Comparison of RUP and XP,” I realized the RUP and XP have a lot in common. Still, I wanted to know about XP apart from the context of the RUP, so I thought the best place to start would be reading a book by one of the key contributors to the XP philosophy, Kent Beck.