XP is great, but it's not necessarily new. People have been doing rapid agile development for years and just might not know it by that name. The real value is the fact that it can be molded for any situation and it's not the type of methodology where you MUST follow every step. If you can't do pair programming, then don't, simple as that. It provides flexibility when we've been so caught up in rigidity.
The biggest shortcoming I see with it, so far, is the fact that the client must also be of the same mindset as you. In other words, it is such an open system that the client can have significant impact on the development process itself, which is true in any case, but seems moreso in XP's. If your client is a "bad" one, you're essentially finished before starting. I have seen a project where the client started out willing to try the XP approach only to end up much later having decided that they didn't want to do that afterall and now no one knew what was really built in the interim. As with anything else, the best course of action is to use wisdom and experience to decide the best methodology to use. XP allows you to mix and match as needed, while providing some excellent foundations - in my mind that's why it is good. :) Chris -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
