Extreme Programming Installed

Summary

Having your customer with you is really valuable. It's possible to survive without it—many projects do—but you'll go faster and more smoothly by being together. It's the difference between being in the car when it's time to turn or just writing a note that says, "Don't forget to turn at 34th Street." When 34th is blocked and you're in the car, you can tell the driver how to recover. The note can't help.

Somewhere along the way in your project, 34th Street will be blocked, and having the customer there will bring the project back on line so smoothly it'll be as if it never happened. And every day, the small conversations will add up to a lot of trust and communication between customers and programmers. That, of course, leads to success. ...