Many developers consider Extreme Programming the latest and best of all development processes. Thus, every true development process aficionado must read up on it-and O’Reilly’s extreme programming pocket guide makes a good starting point, as it is very short.
The basic idea of extreme programming is that software is developed in iterations where the most important features get implemented first. A working “first prototype” is accomplished very fast, and after that, more and more features get added according to what the customer needs most. Just in case anyone also read Ship It, this really smells like their pet process Tracer Bullet Development.
The book itself is well organized. It begins with an overview of the four critical XP resources, and then moves on to a basic overview of how the extreme programming process works. After reading a quarter of the book, you can fully understand an XP process.
After that, the book goes into more details of XP implementation, covering roles, practices and deployment hints. After having read the full book, you can basically set out and deploy an XP process in your development shack.
The paper quality is a non-issue, our standard Parker 45 X-nib had no problems with ink blotting. However, the small size of the book makes jotting in notes very difficult!
Overall, this is a great read for anyone interested in extreme programming. Reading up on XP will make you understand what the IT press is buzzing about; and it will also get you thinking about how you develop software. Amazon sells the book for about 10$, a sum which definitely won’t kill you. However; the usable value of such an extreme development process for a small development shack is low – if you know the priorities right from the start(e.g. when developing shareware that you market yourself), the flexibility gained by XP is not helpful.
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