Beck, who owns and operates his own software company, wants to encourage readers to reexamine their preconceptions of how software development ought to occur. He does just that in this overview of Extreme Programming (XP), a controversial approach to software development which challenges the notion that the cost of changing a piece of software must rise dramatically over the course of time. This book covers the basics of XP, including the integration of testing throughout the whole system, beginning projects with a simple design, and expanding and changing it as you go along. XP asserts that programmers should participate at every phase of a project, rather than specialize, and it encourages face-to-face communication with two programmers at a screen. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)