On all but the smallest of projects, the people involved in a software project will be part of one or more entities (businesses, functional groups, governments, communities, etc.). The XP Practices focus on the roles directly involved in identifying what the software needs to do (XP Customer Team) and developing that software (XP Developer Team). To support those teams, the Whole Team includes a third important group, the XP Organization.

The specific roles that XP identifies as part of the XP Organization are the XP Tracker and the XP Coach. The XP Organization also includes all of the people who make up the infrastructure that allows the project to exist. This includes management, accounting, support, facilities, etc. Because these are supporting roles, XP attempts to minimize the dependence of the XP Customer Team and the XP Developer Team on the XP Organization. In XP, the goal is for the whole team to be self-managing and largely self-supporting. XP does not give specific practice guidance to these other roles, but does suggest that these roles also guide their practices with the XP Values of communication, simplicity, feedback, and courage.