XP after Enron - Can it survive?

Abstract

The recent financial scandals involving Enron, WorldCom etc. have resulted in major changes in the way companies manage their financial activities, not just in the USA but in Europe, also. Chief Executives and Finance Directors are now being made much more accountable for the way that budgets are set and expenditure approved. This raises awkward questions for XP. Can it evolve to provide business customers a more rigorous and auditable process that will stand up to the scrutiny of accountants and lawyers when justifying the allocation of budgets and the validation of expenditure? Can XP relate to this and evolve in a way that will ensure its survival? Some experiences of adapting XP to meet these issues in a software house are described. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.