XP Is Too New To Trust

Almost nobody makes a habit of being the sucker to use Release 1.0 of a
software product. This increases your project risk. To many, XP is at Release 1.0
right now. Maybe it is really at Release 1.x. So what?
When managers talk about new things like XP being risky, they are assuming
that the status quo is safer. We have seen that it isn't. If you stay on the status quo
curve, be ready to run out of oxygen. You cannot stay there and survive. The only
way to find out if XP is too risky to use is to try it. As we said in Chapter 2, you
don't have to try it on a mission-critical project first. But you have to try it so that
you can get feedback on whether or not it produces the results you want in your
environment.
If your manager doesn't micromanage, get a bunch of XP-friendly developers
together and give it a try. Show your manager the results. If the results are great,
you're on your way. If not, drop back and figure out why not. Then modify the
process as necessary and try again.
If your manager is more hands-on, ask your manger for permission to try XP for
two or three weeks. Then let them examine the results after a couple weeks and draw
their own conclusions. Ask them if extrapolating the results you saw on this first
project would flatten the curve. If it would, you've got a powerful argument in favor
of XP.