In short, I??™ve found
that automated acceptance tests cost more than they??™re worth.
In this book, I??™ve replaced automated acceptance tests with customer reviews, customer testing, and
exploratory testing. Customer reviews involve customers throughout the development process, allowing them
to communicate the spirit as well as the letter of their needs. Customer testing is a variant of automated
acceptance testing that focuses on small, targeted tests rather than system-level tests. Its purpose is to
communicate complicated business rules rather than confirming that a story has been completed properly.
Exploratory testing provides an after-the-fact check on the team??™s practices. When the team is working well,
they should produce nearly zero bugs. Exploratory testing helps the team have confidence that this is true.
Despite these changes, I??™ve only added three brand-new practices in this book (Table 3-2). None of these
practices are my invention; I adapted them from other methods and have proven them in real-world projects.
24 C H A P T E R 3 : U N D E R S T A N D I N G X P
Table 3-2. Practices new to XP
New practice Reason
Vision Focuses efforts and helps counteract common ???agile thrashing??? problem
Risk Management Improves team??™s ability to make and meet commitments; reduces costs
Exploratory Testing Improves quality and helps integrate testers
However, there are several practices that mature XP teams practice intuitively, but aren??™t explicitly listed as
practices in other XP books.
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