Analyzing Extreme Programming (XP) Project Management Report

This report provides an analysis of Extreme Programming (XP) project management, a methodology focused on improving software quality by adapting to changing customer requirements. It highlights the strengths of XP, such as its responsiveness to change, customer feedback integration, and simplicity, allowing for iterative improvements. Conversely, it points out weaknesses like a primary focus on coding over design, lack of defect documentation, and potential for scope creep due to the absence of detailed initial planning. The report also compares XP with other project management methodologies, including Waterfall, Agile Scrum, and Kanban, emphasizing the differences in iteration lengths and workflow approaches. The conclusion stresses the suitability of XP for smaller projects, while also acknowledging the importance of planning to manage potential scope changes and ensure successful project completion.

Running head: ANALYZING EXTREME PROGRAMMING (XP) PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Analyzing extreme programming (XP) project management
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ANALYZING EXTREME PROGRAMMING (XP) PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Extreme Programming (XP) is a methodology for software development that intends to
improve the quality of software in response to the changing requirements of the customer. It is a
project management approach is designed by combining a set of existing software development
practices. The strength and weakness of XP methodology is discussed below.
Strength and Weakness
Strength:
1. In XP, the important features of the product are coded first
2. This methodology is responsive to the change
3. The methodology offers feedback path and therefore, it becomes easier to incorporate the
customers’ requirements in the product implementation phase (Wood, Michaelides and
Thomson 2013).
4. Simplicity of the process is a major advantage of extreme programming as the developers
create simple code so that it can be modified according to the customers demand in the
later stages of project implementation.
5. It increases customers’ satisfaction as the product developed through XP can be
improvised as per requirements.
Weakness:
1. Extreme programming is more focused on code rather than design.
2. The process of defect documentation is absent in XP

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ANALYZING EXTREME PROGRAMMING (XP) PROJECT MANAGEMENT
3. It does not measure the code quality assurance as it can cause defects in the initial code
(Turk, France and Rumpe 2014).
4. It requires a detailed planning as there are chances of changing cost and scope.
XP in comparison with other methodologies
There are a number of project management methodologies such as waterfall, agile
kanban, agile scrum and so on. XP project management methodology differs a lot from these
methodologies. For example, waterfall is a traditional approach of software development and
follows a sequential approach. In case of waterfall, testing is conducted at the final stages of
work quite contrast to XP (Stoica, Mircea and Ghilic-Micu 2013).
Iterations in XP is considerably shorter in comparison to Agile scrum as a sprint in agile
scrum lasts about three weeks while in XP, the entire project can be completed within 2 weeks
(Sharma, Sarkar and Gupta 2012).
The difference between Kanban and XP is that in Kanban, the workflow is not divided
into iterations, while XP follows an iterative approach.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that extreme programming is an easy project management
approach that can be used for implementing smaller projects. One of the major drawbacks of
implementing a project through XP methodology is that project planning is skipped as there are
high chances of scope creep in the project. However, project planning is needed in XP in order to
plan the implementation stages of a particular project and its successful completion.

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ANALYZING EXTREME PROGRAMMING (XP) PROJECT MANAGEMENT
References
Sharma, S., Sarkar, D. and Gupta, D., 2012. Agile processes and methodologies: A conceptual
study. International journal on computer science and Engineering, 4(5), p.892.
Stoica, M., Mircea, M. and Ghilic-Micu, B., 2013. Software development: Agile vs.
traditional. Informatica Economica, 17(4), p.64.
Turk, D., France, R. and Rumpe, B., 2014. Limitations of agile software processes. arXiv
preprint arXiv:1409.6600.
Wood, S., Michaelides, G. and Thomson, C., 2013. Successful extreme programming: Fidelity to
the methodology or good teamworking?. Information and Software Technology, 55(4), pp.660-
672.