Evaluating Design Approaches in Extreme Programming

Extreme Programming (XP) is an alternative to traditional software development methods intensive on documentation and planning; XP proposes an emergent design approach, which adds complexity to the system structure only when it’s needed, avoiding a big up front design of the system. Some cases have been reported of developers questioning XP’s design practices and (sometimes implicitly) arguing for the naturalness of, and need for, planned design. The present paper outlines an experimental design in order to compare the actual impact of emergent and planned design approaches on a product’s internal quality, process' productivity, and developers' satisfaction. To enable replication of the experimental design by other teams, an Experimental Package has been also elaborated.