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Change Management and XP's Refactoring Conflict

publish date: 2026/06/04 20:51:43.723926 UTC

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Change management is described as conflicting with XP's refactoring practice. Why?

Change management requires waterfall planning which is incompatible with XP's incremental approach

Change management requires all code to be written in pairs, conflicting with XP's individual coding sessions

Change management controls changes so their impact is predictable and costs controlled — all changes must be approved in advance before being made; this conflicts with XP where any developer can improve any code without getting external approval

Change management prevents any refactoring from occurring, making XP's continuous improvement impossible

Correct Answer

Explanation

Change management is the process of controlling changes to a system so that the impact of changes is predictable and costs are controlled. All changes have to be approved in advance before they are made. This conflicts with XP's notion of refactoring where any developer can improve any code without getting external approval.

Reference

Software Engineering, Ian Sommerville, 9th edition

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