A fantastic account of one XP consultant's experience at a development shop. The client is deeply mired in a death-march project for a key client. The consultant swings it round using XP principles to engage and involve the client. A classic demonstration of the root cause of most project failures: lack of communication!

We proved that having the client on board, driving the priorities and steering every decision was a tremendous benefit. We proved that compiling ALL the requirements upfront is a waste of time and that business requirements do change. We proved that indeed the client ultimately understands their business better than anyone else and we add value if we can respond to their requests now rather than later. And we proved that short development cycles with working software and the frequent client feedback loop significantly reduces risk and helps keep the project on course.