[robin2]

Projects can be canned for all sorts of reasons, but from what I recall the people involved in C3 blamed the Chrysler management. Perhaps the latter were more interested in having a working payroll system than inventing the future of software development.

One of the criticisms I remember some people making of XP when it first came to prominence was that it shifted a lot of the hard work of software development onto the customer, or rather the customer representative; certainly, ever since I heard about what happened to the first XP customer representative (see http://www.coldewey.com/publikationen/conferences/oopsla2001...) I've taken comments about XP being a humane methodology with a pinch of salt.

[bazzargh]

I don't disagree with what you say about C3; my comment is more to do with the "see one-write one" nature of software books. Even though some books turn out surprisingly well, there's a distinct lack of depth and statistical analysis in the field.