Extreme Programming (XP) is an agile software development process that places an emphasis on efficiency, straightforwardness, and high-quality outcomes through condensed development cycles. In the software development world, it was first introduced by Kent Beck in the late 1990s.
Five core values serve as the foundation of XP.
1. Communication: Promoting consistent and efficient communication among team members, stakeholders, and clients. The main form of communication in this scenario is face-to-face interaction.
2. Simplicity: Making every effort to keep software as straightforward in its design and implementation to reduce complexity and make it simpler to comprehend, maintain, and modify.
4. Courage: Encouraging team members to take chances, handle problems, and make required adjustments without worrying about failing. This involves being open and transparent about the project's state and any issues that may have arisen.
5. Respect: Promoting an environment of cooperation and respect where team members can rely on and help one another. To do this, each team member's thoughts and abilities must be valued.
XP adheres to five main guidelines in addition to the guiding values.
1. The Planning Game: Collaborative project planning, user story breakdown, work estimation, and priority setting.
2. Frequent, small-scale software releases: Enable ongoing feedback and value delivery before the deadline.
3. Metaphor: Using a common language or metaphor to describe the system, which improves team members' ability to communicate and comprehend one another.
4. Simple Design: Concentrating on keeping the software's design simple and adaptable while attending to urgent needs. Refactoring is frequently utilized as the project develops to enhance the design.
5. Testing: Creating automated tests at various levels (unit, integration, acceptance) to confirm the functionality of the product and find issues as soon as possible.
Several roles play a part in the effectiveness of the development process in Extreme Programming (XP). The customer and development team work closely together to set requirements and acceptance standards. In addition to writing code, developers also adhere to XP practices such as pair programming, continuous integration, communal code ownership, sustainable pace, regular refactoring, and others. Through the use of tests and requirement validation, testers guarantee the quality of software. The tracker (the Scrum Master equivalent) streamlines the XP process, gets rid of roadblocks, and reports development. An XP coach can also offer direction and assistance. XP promotes shared ownership, cooperation, and flexibility, which promotes rapid software development, low defect rates, and high customer satisfaction.