Back in 2000 (seems like ancient history now, when you think of anything pre "9/11") some of the developer crew at the banking software company I was working at then started buzzing about "XP" or "Extreme Programming". So I went through the litany - looking up stuff on websites, reading wikis and newsgroups, and the rest. Fortunately (I guess) at the time it just didn't seem like it would be productive to do pair programming or constant unit testing and refactoring of code, and the idea of writing down user stories on index cards and all the other "XP" stuff was obviously not going to fit in our organization. Nor was the idea of "the code is the documentation" - I was trying to get our people to do more documentation and design up front, not less... My initial impression of the whole thing was that it was a lot like Scientology - some sort of weirdo "religion" that didn't really make much sense!

So "XP" went its merry way, and I went mine, and it left me and the people I work with pretty much unscathed. And of course it has come up over and over again since then, including at the company I currently work at. One of the things I've found out about anything "XP" like is that weak - minded people who are looking for excuses or who don't do too much independent thinking and analysis on their own are much more likely to become attracted to this type of thing. But I never had any in-depth analysis or proof of what XP was really all about, until the review copy of "Extreme Programming Refactored" by Matt Stephens and Doug Rosenberg arrived from aPress.

This is a book that is at once humorous, with many witticisms, funny stories and even "XP-ified" popular song lyrics, and at the same time, deadly serious and analytical, with real life horror stories from people who have been involved in XP projects that went awry.

Stephens and Rosenberg begin their tome with the story about the "Emporer's new Code" and it just keeps getting better from there on. Readers will learn unique and useful acronyms such as CRAP (Constant Refactoring After Coding) and YAGNI (You Ain't Gonna Need It), among other gems. This book should prove to be incredibly useful to any programmer possessing an above-room temperature IQ, whose better judgment has been telling them all along that there is something "not completely right" with Extreme Programming.

The authors carefully and scientifically dissect and debunk every aspect of XP in their five - part book, which is broken down as follows:

• Part I Another Fine Mess You've Gotten Me Into (Laurel and Hardy Take Up Programming)
  Chapter 1: XP in a Nuthouse (Oops, We Mean Nutshell)
  Chapter 2: Where Did XP Come From? (Chrysler Knows It Ain't Easy . . .)
  Chapter 3: The Case Against XP
  
• Part II Social Aspects of XP (Mama Don't Let Your Coders Grow Up to Be Cowboys)
  Chapter 4: Extremo Culture
  Chapter 5: The On-site Customer
  Chapter 6: Pair Programming (Dear Uncle Joe, My Pair Programmer Has Halitosis)
  Chapter 7: Oral Documentation (Oxymoronic, or Just Plain Moronic?)
  
• Part III We Don't Write Permanent Specs and Barely Do Any Upfront Design, So
  Chapter 8: Design After First Testing
  Chapter 9: Constant Refactoring After Programming (If It Ain't Broke, Fix It Anyway)
  Chapter 10: User Stories and Acceptance Tests
  
• Part IV The Perpetual Coding Machine
  Chapter 11: Software Is Never Done (The Schedule Does Not Exist Per Se)
  Chapter 12: Emergent Architecture and Design
  Chapter 13: Embracing Change (Embrace People, Manage Change)
  
• Part V The Big Picture
  Chapter 14: Scalability
  Chapter 15: Refactoring XP
  Chapter 16: Conclusion: Neutralizing the Reality Distortion Field

What's most important about Extreme Programming Refactored: The Case Against XP  is that in sum, it's an insightful look at a programming and problem solving methodology that indeed does have some very valuable facets, once they can be separated out from the quasi-evangelical hype and mixed with a little common sense, which Stephens and Rosenberg nimbly apply. Recommended.