Extreme Programming Software Development

Extreme Programming Software development methodology is popular today. But what are its main principles? In this article we will look at XP in greater detail to understand its goals, methods, and the entire process of software development.

The first thing we should know about Extreme Programming is that it is one of the Agile methodologies. Agile is an innovational method of software development that was invented in early 2000s. Its main goal is to make the process of software development more efficient by finding nonstandard solutions for standard issues. All Agile methodologies are based on three main principles: strong communication between the team members, strong customer involvement in the process of software development, and iterative cycles.

Extreme Programming software development methodology is not an exception. The degree of customer involvement in XP is the highest among all Agile methodologies. The client participates personally at all meetings of the Extreme Programming team. He is also responsible for gathering user stories and estimating the final and intermediate product. Strong customer involvement helps XP teams finish all their projects in time.

Communication between the members of XP teams is also very strong. Usually, they have only several developers who work together in the same office. If a problem occurs, the developers search for the solution together. That allows the team to save lots of time.

The iterative cycles of Extreme Programming are very short compared to the iterations of other Agile methodologies. Usually they last only one week. That is why this methodology is called extreme. The developers are placed in strict time frames. However, extreme programmers have lots of effective practices to finish any project just in time.

These XP practices are based on five values:

Communication

As we have already mentioned, communication inside of Extreme Programming teams is very strong. That is because of the need to change something in their projects constantly. XP teams have no strict documentation, so they have to conduct negotiations with the customer during the project to know his requirements.

Simplicity

A good XP code is a simple code. Simplicity allows Extreme Programming developers to avoid bugs in their software products. To make the code simple XP programmers refactor it constantly during the projects. Refactoring is the procedure that simplifies the code without impacting its functionality.

Feedback

Extreme Programming development process requires constant customer feedback processing. That is because of the short iterative cycles of this methodology. The team creates a new intermediate product every week and it needs to see the customer’s reaction to it.

Courage

XP developers have to be courage enough to remove unnecessary elements from the product’s code even if they wasted a lot of time writing them.

Respect

Each developer must respect other team members and their work to achieve good results in Extreme Programming.