Kent Beck
Kent Beck
Kent Beckis an American software engineer and the creator of Extreme Programming, a software development methodology which eschews rigid formal specification for a collaborative and iterative design process. Beck was one of the 17 original signatories of the Agile Manifesto, the founding document for agile software development. Extreme and Agile methods are closely associated with Test Driven Development, of which Beck is perhaps the leading proponent...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
CountryUnited States of America
gone
If I'd had a charisma-ectomy in the beginning, XP would have gone nowhere.
defects deployed factors leads
I think it's a combination of technical and social factors that leads to all the defects in deployed software.
feelings littles responsible
I don't like the feeling, but I've got to say that a little fear makes me a more focused, more responsible programmer.
team technology inability
The business changes. The technology changes. The team changes. The team members change. The problem isn't change, per se, because change is going to happen; the problem, rather, is the inability to cope with change when it comes.
giving-up simple ideas
Code wants to be simple... I had to give up the idea that I had the perfect vision of the system to which the system had to conform. Instead, I had to accept that I was only the vehicle for the system expressing its own desire for simplicity. My vision could shape initial direction, and my attention to the desires of the code could affect how quickly and how well the system found its desired shape, but the system is riding me much more than I am riding the system.
tests cost testing
If testing costs more than not testing, then don't test.
honesty responsibility practice
Responsible Development shares many practices with XP but the roots are different. Responsible Development's values are honesty, transparency, accountability and responsibility. These lead me to pairing, test-first, incremental design, continuous integration and so on because they support the values.
optimism hazards computer
Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming; feedback is the treatment.
mature problem sometimes
Sometimes the problem has to mature before the solution can mature.
responsibility programming slacker
Testing is not the point. The point is about responsibility.
change clearly design easy elements manage obviously simple simplify step technical
Design should be easy in the sense that every step should be obviously and clearly identifiable. Simplify elements to make change simple so you can manage the technical risk.
cost
First you learn the value of abstraction, then you learn the cost of abstraction, then you're ready to engineer.
movies organ played silent
My great-grandfather played organ for silent movies. Talkies in, Gramps out.
design economic improvise model presents quickly rational software
A rational model of software is to design it quickly - the economic pressure to improvise presents an interesting challenge.