Customer involvement makes a huge difference in product
success. Make an extra effort to include customers. One way
to do so is to move to their offices rather than asking them to
move to your office. Make sure the customers agree and that
there??™s adequate space available.
If the customers won??™t move to
the team, move the team to the
customers.
T H E X P T E A M 29
WHY SO MANY CUSTOMERS?
Two customers for every three programmers seems like a lot, doesn??™t it? Initially I started with a much smaller
ratio, but I often observed customers struggling to keep up with the programmers. Eventually I arrived at the
two-to-three ratio after trying different ratios on several successful teams. I also asked other XP coaches about
their experiences. The consensus was that the two-to-three ratio was about right.
Most of those projects involved complex problem domains, so if your software is fairly straightforward, you
may be able to have fewer customers. Keep in mind that customers have a lot of work to do. They need to figure
out what provides the most value, set the appropriate priorities for the work, identify all the details that
programmers will ask about, and fit in time for customer reviews and testing.
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