Conclusion

DXP can efficiently integrate remote and mobile team members into the development process and is thus a valuable extension to traditional XP. In addition, it enables much more effective involvement of the customer compared with XP, especially in situations where it seems impossible to have an on-site customer.

DXP can therefore actively broaden the acceptance of XP as a lightweight though effective software development process. We are aware that a virtual meeting through computer-supported interaction can never replace direct human interaction. However, there are situations where such interaction is not feasible and where a form of XP can still be successfully employed.

At the time of writing, we realized that we heavily touched the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).^[8] How DXP relates to this needs further investigation. We have found, not surprisingly, that for computer-supported interaction to be successful, live pictures and tone (video and audio) are elementary.

^[8] See http://www.telekooperation.de/cscw/, maintained by Applied Informatics and Distributed Systems Group, Technical University Munich.

We plan to document guidelines on how to implement DXP in a project in future papers.

The solutions proposed in this chapter might just be the first steps to a general revolution in human interaction the long-missed multimedia revolution, which is yet to happen.