"XP is the most important movement in our field today. I predict that it will be as essential to the present generation as the S.E.I. and its Capability Maturity Model were to the last." --From the foreword by Tom DeMarco The hallmarks of Extreme Programming--constant integration and automated testing, frequent small releases that incorporate continual customer feedback, and a teamwork approach--make it an exceptionally flexible and effective approach to software development. Once considered radical, Extreme Programming (XP) is rapidly becoming recognized as an approach particularly well-suited to small teams facing vague or rapidly changing requirements--that is, the majority of projects in today's fast-paced software development world. Within this context of flexibility and rapid-fire changes, planning is critical; without it, software projects can quickly fall apart. Written by acknowledged XP authorities Kent Beck and Martin Fowler, Planning Extreme Programming presents the approaches, methods, and advice you need to plan and track a successful Extreme Programming project. The key XP philosophy: Planning is not a one-time event, but a constant process of reevaluation and course-correction throughout the lifecycle of the project. You will learn how planning is essential to controlling workload, reducing programmer stress, increasing productivity, and keeping projects on track. Planning Extreme Programming also focuses on the importance of estimating the cost and time for each user story (requirement), determining its priority, and planning software releases accordingly. Specific topics include:

• Planning and the four key variables: cost, quality, time, and scope

• Deciding how many features to incorporate into a release

• Estimating scope, time, and effort for user stories

• Prioritizing user stories

• Balancing the business value and technical risk of user stories

• Rebuilding the release plan based on customer and programmer input

• Choosing the iteration length

• Tracking an iteration

• What to do when you're not going to make the date

• Dealing with bugs

• Making changes to the team

• Outsourcing

• Working with business contracts

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 26 Ratings

How exactly to plan XP? - 2003-01-06
Reviewer Rating:
This book is very valuable if you already started to practice Extreme Programming. It contains a very encouraging foreword by Tom DeMarco. The first nine chapters are introductory, and you may skip them if you read the XP Manifesto "Extreme Programming Explained" by Kent Beck. Chapters from ten to twenty three contain valuable information not found in any other XP-related book.

- How exactly to plan releases? What if frequent releases aren't appropriate and marketing demands to release once a year?

- How exactly to write user stories, and how to handle them? Although the reader may find some sample stories in "Extreme Programming Installed" by Ron Jeffries, Ann Anderson and Chet Hendrickson, the stories in the "Planning Extreme Programming" are used as core elements in the whole planning process, shown as example.

- How exactly to build the iteration plan and the release plan? How to track an iteration?

I would also like to recommend "Extreme Programming Applied: Playing to Win" by Ken Auer, Roy Miller, Ward Cunningham. I think this is the most practical book on XP ever written.

I would also like to recommend the titles about individual XP aspects:
- Design Improvement: "Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code " by Martin Fowler;
- Test-Driven Development: "Test Driven Development: By Example " by Kent Beck;
- Sustainable Pace: "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency" by Tom DeMarco;
- Pair Programming: "Pair Programming Illuminated" by Laurie Williams and Robert Kessler;
- Whole Team: "Agile Software Development" by Alistair Cockburn;
- Planning Game: "Planning Extreme Programming" by Kent Beck, Martin Fowler;
- Small Releases: "Software Project Survival Guide" by Steve C McConnell.

crackles with ideas and fleshes out more of XP - 2003-09-07
Reviewer Rating:
Kent Beck and Martin Fowler have to be something of a "dream team" for a computer book. Not only was this book informative and interesting, but I actually enjoyed reading it. The book crackles with ideas and sparkles with a subtle wit.

The content of the book covers all aspects of planning, managing and tracking progress on an XP (Extreme Programming) project and is a worthy companion to Kent Beck's anthemic XP Explained. Hard stuff missed out from the earlier work such as how to estimate how long things will take, how to write user stories and how to organize the details of iterations and releases is explained in a straightforward way. It also introduces a few new key XP concepts, showing that this radical methodology didn't spring fully formed into the mind of Beck, but is still evolving. One such key is "Yesterdays Weather", the idea that you can't go far wrong by using past performance as an initial guess for future results.

If you are at all intrigued by the new "agile" methodologies, read XP Explained and then this one. Then buy a few more copies for your management.

Excellent book - 2003-08-05
Reviewer Rating:
This book lays out the point of planning, the approach taken, and the steps to do.

This book has a lot of content not found in any other XP book that I own. The gold nuggets in here are useful for project management for years to come. It's a 5 star for sure.

Objective overview of XP planning - 2007-05-12
Reviewer Rating:
Using a very objective and simple approach, the book presents the xp way of planning in a very easy and enjoyable way. It does not contain much practical advice, but it is an excellent starting point for someone who is not familiar with xp and its practices. After reading this book one should definitely look for "Agile Estimating And Planning" from Mike Cohn. It contains a more thorough approach on the subject.

Begin Your XP Journey Here - 2006-07-11
Reviewer Rating:
Well, I had been tentative about spending time investigating the meaning of "Extreme Programming", based primarily on what I consider to be a name that smacks of jargon, and because I thought that the audience for this development approach was young hip gamer-types who wanted to develop business applications! I now appologize to those who synthesized the techniques (although I still consider the name to be unfortunate, sorry). I am optimistic that this approach to development will solve many of the problems that I have faced over the years, and that this solution is much simpler than I could have dreamed of! This book is just 130 pages, and the techniques are clearly, succinctly, and I think expertly described by Kent and Martin. The level of humor is good, and the practicality of the solution is clear.

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