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Summary: Recommended not ONLY for XP planers
Review: Kent Beck and Martin Fowler wrote an excellent book about the planing process for Extreme Programming (XP). Although it helps to have read Kent Beck's 'Extreme Programming Explained', I found the book useful even without knowing too much about XP beforehand. The book is easy to read (more like a story then a scientific book) and well structured. Beck and Fowler also let the reader focused on the importent issues and did not try to discuss every possible sub-case (which they could have done very easily to blow up the size of the book). Knowing Addision-Wesley quality books, I was a little disappointed about the way the book was put together. E.g. 'Velocity' is defined (using bold letters) on page 43, but that page is not mentioned in the index.
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Summary: ...plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Review: Planning Extreme Programming illustrates how planning is important in Extreme Programming. So important that in true Xp style, we do it all the time. From stand-up meetings to release planning, this is how, what, where, when and the why to planning in Xp.
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Summary: Expensive but excellent book
Review: Planning XP is well-written, just like Robert's Uml Distilled and Refactoring. Reading it was as easy as reading a child's story book. Of course, the content of it are serious, for developers, customers as well as project managers. This book talks in details the planning and requirement gathering part in XP process. The order of reading the three books would be XP Explained, XP Installed followed by Planning XP. One shortcoming of the book IMHO would be that the example on the travel booking system should be elaborated on. We all learn from examples and it would be great if the content of the book is develop around this example to give a better understanding of the subject. Even so, this book is great in explaining about subject, simply because it's practical. It tells you how to go about doing it and not what you should do. Do not refuse to read it just because you do not believes in XP. XP books are always littered with good tips which are applicable even if you are using other processes. Comparing prices, this book is rather expensive, considering that I can get the GoF book one dollar cheaper here in my country. The GoF book is thicker and comes with hard covers. Even though it is expensive, I would still recommend it, as I feel that this should be a book that everyone in a project team should own. Rush to your nearest bookstore now!
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Summary: What does GoF mean?
Review: Reviewer Lee mentioned a "GoF" book. Can anybody help me understand what that means? Thank you in advance!
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Summary: How to make things work by making them small
Review: Skepticism about new techniques is a natural state for programmers and those who manage them. Hype amid the desperate search for effective strategies is one of the many factors contributing to the poor rate of success in the business. Extreme programming, where development is broken up into a series of microcycles performed by small teams, is an apparent step backwards in the evolution of the planning of software projects. I was initially very skeptical about it, for the primary reason that not all things can be broken up into executable cycles of approximately two weeks in length.
However, this book, packed with some of the most sensible advice you can find, sold me on the concept, if not the implementation. The approach is an admirable one, let the customer decide. If the project and customers are worth having, then there will be more features than can be implemented in the allotted time. Since slipping the release date is NOT considered an option, it is the responsibility of the customer to choose what is to be delayed or eliminated. A synergy between developers, marketers, and customers where all work together and know where they stand is certainly a desirable goal. The reason for my skepticism is that in my experience, the customers are not as cognizant of their priorities as those ideals used in the book. However, the advice given here will help you approach this ideal state of affairs.
The tactic is to refer to all features and descriptions as stories. I am generally not one who is fond of someone taking semantic license in describing circumstances. However, in this case, it does fit. The description of software is very much like a story in that your ideal is a fiction that may never be achieved. Since you are not sure exactly what you have created, the documentation is somewhat exaggerated and the end result is unknown until it happens.
In a brilliant use of terminology, the authors use ideal time in planning rather than real time, and this is something that all programmers will enthusiastically applaud. Ideal time is that amount of time actually spent in working on the project as opposed to that spent in distractions. When it comes time for projecting completion dates, the developers then use ideal time rather than the false alternative. This is the most sensible strategy that could ever be used and if any one idea in this book is adopted, this should be it.
Another simple and very effective strategy is the yesterday's weather approach to predicting future performance. The analogy is simple. Enormous amounts of money can be spent on hardware and sophisticated computer models in an attempt to predict what the weather will be like tomorrow. However, you can be almost as accurate if you simply say that it will be much like today. Taking the same approach to development, you can say that the rate of development achieved by each programmer on the next project will be very similar to what they did on the last project. You may not be exactly right, but the time saved in avoiding complex analysis will most likely make up any shortfall.
The authors present a situation that has many utopian features. However, while utopian conditions may not be possible, they do give us targets to shoot for and any step closer to it will make things easier. Since the strategies used to bring about the ideal conditions are described, this is one book that should be the focal point of a lengthy meeting. Any agreement to implement any part of the plan will pay enormous dividends.
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Summary: Essential, If a Tad Narrow
Review: The many other reviews here give you a sense of what you'll find in this book. I think there is one important point that is missing from this picture: the fact that the focus of the authors in this and the first book is on software processes where there really is no visioning going on at all. What do I mean by that? Well, in the first book they are describing the writing of a payroll program (their project @ Chrysler). In this book it's a travel application. Thankfully, not all of us are writing software that has been written a thousand times before. While this may sound like a trifle, I believe it is a central point with regard to this book. The whole concept of iterative, incremental development takes on a different hue when you remove visioning from the process. In fact, what the world really needs to figure out how to do is not write the 10,000th payroll program faster than someone else, but how to write new, innovative software on time allowances that are absurdly short. I think the next volume if there is to be one, should be a detailed account of a project where the team had to navigate the process through not only implementation but realization of an evolving, sophisticated vision. Finally, consider the fact that software development that requires no visioning is basically a craft that's akin to dressmaking. While some people are happy to see their creativity as 'developers' manifest solely in finding crafty implementations, let's face the facts: we need to figure out how to get beyond just opposing tribes matching each other's features on models that are overdue for commodification.
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Summary: How exactly to plan XP?
Review: This book is very valuable if you already started to practice Extreme Programming. It contains a very encouraging foreword by Tom DeMarco. The first nine chapters are introductory, and you may skip them if you read the XP Manifesto "Extreme Programming Explained" by Kent Beck. Chapters from ten to twenty three contain valuable information not found in any other XP-related book. - How exactly to plan releases? What if frequent releases aren't appropriate and marketing demands to release once a year? - How exactly to write user stories, and how to handle them? Although the reader may find some sample stories in "Extreme Programming Installed" by Ron Jeffries, Ann Anderson and Chet Hendrickson, the stories in the "Planning Extreme Programming" are used as core elements in the whole planning process, shown as example. - How exactly to build the iteration plan and the release plan? How to track an iteration? I would also like to recommend "Extreme Programming Applied: Playing to Win" by Ken Auer, Roy Miller, Ward Cunningham. I think this is the most practical book on XP ever written. I would also like to recommend the titles about individual XP aspects:
- Design Improvement: "Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code " by Martin Fowler;
- Test-Driven Development: "Test Driven Development: By Example " by Kent Beck;
- Sustainable Pace: "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency" by Tom DeMarco;
- Pair Programming: "Pair Programming Illuminated" by Laurie Williams and Robert Kessler;
- Whole Team: "Agile Software Development" by Alistair Cockburn;
- Planning Game: "Planning Extreme Programming" by Kent Beck, Martin Fowler;
- Small Releases: "Software Project Survival Guide" by Steve C McConnell.
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Summary: worth-a-look
Review: This book is worth a look before start managing a Project.
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Summary: Excellent book
Review: This book lays out the point of planning, the approach taken, and the steps to do. This book has a lot of content not found in any other XP book that I own. The gold nuggets in here are useful for project management for years to come. It's a 5 star for sure.
Rating: 
Summary: Not only physically thin
Review: This is NOT half as good as what Martin Fowler usually writes (don't know about K.B.). Most of the book is not new to me - a lot of the book seems to be a rehash of my earlier readings on project planning. Furthermore I hate the really childish examples! If you want some good books on planning rapid (iterative) development go for: "Dsdm Dynamic Systems Development Method : The Method in Practice" by Jennifer Stapleton or "Rapid Development : Taming Wild Software Schedules" by Steve C McConnell.
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