Extreme Programming (XP)

Correct Answer: Explain the XP philosophy and assure them that prioritizing feedback from small, working features leads to superior final product.

The correct answer is 'Explain the XP philosophy and assure them that prioritizing feedback from small, working features leads to superior final product.' This is the best practice in an Extreme Programming (XP) setup, where you value customer collaboration and incorporate changes based on their hands-on interaction with the small, shippable features of the product rather than sticking to a rigid, pre-planned trajectory that proves resistant to change. Contrarily, the other options are incorrect. 'Engage in a comprehensive design phase to provide the 'big picture'' is wrong because it goes against the XP principle of welcoming changes in the requirements. 'Ignore their concerns since they hired you for your XP expertise' is not a professional approach and can lead to client dissatisfaction. 'Immediately shift to a different development methodology' is a massive step that shouldn't be taken based on a single customer concern, especially when effective communication can suffice.

Correct Answer: Continuous refactoring

The best practice to address the issue of maintaining simplicity in design due to increasing complexity in an XP project is continuous refactoring. Continuous refactoring is a key practice in Extreme Programming (XP) that helps teams maintain a simple and clean codebase. It involves regularly improving the internal structure of the code while preserving its external behavior. This practice allows teams to manage complexity incrementally, preventing the accumulation of technical debt and ensuring the design remains simple and flexible as the project evolves. Other options are less effective for this specific issue: Increasing the frequency of pair programming sessions can improve code quality and knowledge sharing, but it doesn't directly address the complexity issue in the existing codebase. Expanding the scope of user stories to cover more functionality would likely increase complexity rather than reduce it, making the problem worse. Implementing more detailed upfront design documentation goes against XP principles, which favor adaptive planning and evolutionary design over comprehensive upfront documentation. This approach might lead to over-engineering and increased complexity.

Correct Answer: To prioritize user stories and estimate effort

The primary purpose of the Planning Game in Extreme Programming (XP) is to prioritize user stories and estimate effort. This is the correct answer because:

1. It aligns with XP's focus on customer collaboration and iterative planning.
2. It helps the team and stakeholders agree on what features to implement next.
3. It allows for flexibility in planning, which is a key principle of XP.

The other options are incorrect:

Creating a detailed project schedule and allocating resources is not the main goal of the Planning Game. XP emphasizes adaptive planning rather than upfront, detailed scheduling.

Establishing a fixed scope and budget for the entire project duration contradicts XP's principles of embracing change and continuous planning throughout the project lifecycle.

Designing the system architecture and selecting appropriate technologies are not part of the Planning Game. In XP, architectural decisions are made incrementally as the project progresses, not during the planning phase.