Has anyone noticed this snippet which was posted on on FuckedCompany about XP and MorganStanley? It's a very strange comment as I don't understand how anyone could hide behind XP, which is one of the most transparent set of disciplines I know.

	 :	''"VP of development has been the biggest idiot for surrounding himself with these dishonest people and unqualified programmers who pocketed the company's money for more than a year now and with '''the worst decisions like XP which hid all the unqualified people behind those few who could do something...'''"''

** Maybe they meant WindowsXp? :)

It is really transparent within the team, but is it as transparent to an external observer (like a VP of development)?

''If some of the developers weren't pulling their weight, I'm sure that a healthy XP team would either help them improve or get rid of them. An unhealthy team can be blamed on their (mis)management.''

If execs are interested, they can quickly learn to read the planning board. At EvantDotNet and IonaTechnology, everyone from CEO on down has learned to glance at the cards and ask annoyingly insightful questions. On Iona's Orbix 3 maintenance team, for instance, customer defects are orange so execs can say, "For the last two weeks I haven't seen any orange. What's going on?"

People who choose not to produce can play their game with or without XP. The best we can hope for is to make sure everyone on the team has as much information as possible about what everybody is doing.