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The Customer is Always Available

 

 One of the few requirements of extreme programming (XP) is to have the customer available. Not only to help the development team, but to be a part of it as well. All phases of an XP project require communication with the customer, preferably face to face, on site. It's best to simply assign one or more customers to the development team. Beware though, this seems like a long time to keep the customer hanging and the customer's department is liable to try passing off a trainee as an expert. You need the expert.
 User Stories are written by the customer, with developers helping, to allow time estimates, and assign priority. The customers help make sure most of the system's desired functionality is covered by stories.
 During the release planning meeting the customer will need to negotiate a selection of user

A Customer

stories to be included in each scheduled release. The timing of the release may need to be negotiated as well. The customers must make the decisions that affect their business goals. A release planning meeting is used to define small incremental releases to allow functionality to be released to the customer early. This allows the customers to try the system earlier and give the developers feedback sooner.

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Copyright 1997, 1999 J. Donovan Wells all rights reserved. Any resemblance to actual customers is purely coincidental.