XP: Taking the psychology of programming to the eXtreme

Extreme Programming (XP) is a software development methodology which is growing in popularity and commercial use. Despite a number of published experience reports and a small number of studies, predominantly in an academic environment, our knowledge about how and why some aspects of it work is still in its infancy. One major limitation of many of these studies is a failure to question why the practices of XP appear to work or fail. This paper reviews the research on Extreme Programming and suggests further work is required in order to ascertain how these practices fit into the framework of existing knowledge on the psychological aspects of programming.

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