The Manager Perspective on Winning

In our experience, there is nothing that overcomes manager resistance like
undeniable progress toward the goals he will be measured by. Find out what these
are and how you can use XP to help him make progress toward these goals. That is
how a manager defines "winning.".
One technique that Ken has used with great success is to start every project by
asking the manager, "What can I do to help you achieve your personal goals?". In
this conversation, you find out what these goals are and you start off on the right
foot with the manager. Then as you present ideas, tie them to the manager's goals.
If you can't figure out how to tie them to the goals, don't introduce them.
This can also work in the middle of a project when there is tension between
manager and developer. Ask for some of the manager's time. He might be
expecting you to dump a bombshell on him. When you start the conversation with,
"I realize I may have been inadvertently working against you and that's not good for
any of us. Please forgive me. I'd like to start with a clean slate. Help me
understand your personal goals so I can figure out how we can work together to
achieve them." Once the manager picks his jaw up off the floor, listen to them.
Every organization is different. That means every manager will be measured by
different standards. But all managers in all organizations are concerned with one
primary objective. They are on a mission to minimize risk.Remember the asymptotic software development cost curve? Managers are
consumed by minimizing the risks to their projects and to their careers implied by
that curve. They don't want to get fired and they don't want to end up with egg on
their faces. Their knee-jerk reaction to new approaches tends to be that they will cost
too much and take too long, both of which increase project risk. When managers
object to XP, risk avoidance is behind it. If you want to be heard, you had better
couch your responses in those terms. Focus on these things:

 The money costs of code development and modification

 The time cost of code development and modification

 Retention of highly skilled developers
These are all synonyms for risk. All of them make the curve asymptotic. If a given
approach does a better job of flattening that curve, it wins.
Here are the most prevalent objections we've heard and how you can address
each by focusing on flattening the curve. The proposed way to address these issues
here are a bit terse. Hopefully the rest of the book will help reinforce the points
made.