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Unbelievable, we have reached the seventh edition of the XP2k+n conference! We started at the outset of the new millennium, and we are still proving that agile pr- esses were neither a millennium bug nor a YAF (yet another fad). In its first editions, this conference was a get-together of a few pioneers who - bated about how to make agile processes and methods accepted by the mainstream researchers and practitioners in software engineering. Now agile approach to software development has been fully accepted by the software engineering community and this event has become the major forum for understanding better the implications of agility in software development and proposing extensions to the mainstream approaches. These two aspects were fully reflected in this year's conference. They were - flected in the keynote speeches, which covered the background work done starting as early as the early eighties by Barry Boehm, definition of the field by Kent Beck, a successful industrial application in a success story by Sean Hanly, the perspective and the future of agile methods in large corporations by Jack Järkvik, and even some - sightful views from a philosopher, Pekka Himanen.

This book contains most of the papers presented at the 4th International C- ference on Extreme Programming and Agile Processes in Software Engineering (XP 2003), held in Genoa, Italy, May 2003. The XP 200n series of conferences were started in 2000 to promote the - change of new ideas, research and applications in the emerging?eld of agile methodologies for software development. Over the years, the conference has - come the main world forum for all major advances in this important?eld. Also this year the contributions to Agile Methodologies and Extreme P- gramming were substantial. They demonstrate that the topic is continuing to gain more and more momentum. In spite of some criticism of agile meth- ologies, everyone agrees that they address some unresolved needs of software practitioners. People still do not know how to develop software on time, with the desired features, and within the given budget! This volume is divided into several thematic sections, easing reader's na- gation through the content. Full papers are presented?rst, followed by research reports, papers from the Educational Symposium, and papers from the Ph.D. Symposium. The presentations given during three panel sessions held at the conference conclude the book. The section on Managing Agile Processes includes contributions highlighting the sometimes di?cult relationship between agile methodologies and mana- ment, and includes approaches and suggestions that should facilitate the acc- tance of agile methodologies at the di?erent levels of management.