Peter Marklund's Home

Wired Magazine writes about Extreme Programming at Hewlet Packard in the article The New X-Men . I found the following section especially thought provoking:

The software development process is profoundly screwed up. According to the Standish Group, which conducts an annual industry-wide survey, 15 percent of all information technology projects get canceled outright, costing the sector $38 billion each year, and companies spend $17 billion annually on cost overruns. Those products that are finally released contain just 52 percent of the features customers asked for. Throughout the industry, projects are chronically late - only 18 percent hit deadline - and consistently, maddeningly flawed.

My personal experiences with XP (Extreme Programming) are very positive, especially because of pair programming and the communicative and social emphasis of the approach.