Kent Beck Explained

Kent Beck (born 1961) is an American software engineer and the creator of extreme programming, a software development methodology that eschews rigid formal specification for a collaborative and iterative design process. Beck was one of the 17 original signatories of the Agile Manifesto,^[1] the founding document for agile software development. Extreme and Agile methods are closely associated with Test-Driven Development (TDD), of which Beck is perhaps the leading proponent.

Beck pioneered software design patterns, as well as the commercial application of Smalltalk. He wrote the SUnit unit testing framework for Smalltalk, which spawned the xUnit series of frameworks, notably JUnit for Java, which Beck wrote with Erich Gamma. Beck popularized CRC cards with Ward Cunningham, the inventor of the wiki.

He lives in San Francisco, California and previously worked at Facebook.^[2] In 2019, Beck joined Gusto as a software fellow and coach, where he coaches engineering teams as they build out payroll systems for small businesses.^[3]

History

Beck attended the University of Oregon between 1979 and 1987, receiving B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer and information science.^[4]

In 1996 Beck was hired to work on the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation System. Beck in turn brought in Ron Jeffries. In March 1996 the development team estimated the system would be ready to go into production around one year later. In 1997 the development team adopted a way of working which is now formalized as extreme programming.^[5] The one-year delivery target was nearly achieved, with actual delivery being only a couple of months late.

Publications

Books

• 1996. Kent Beck's Guide to Better Smalltalk : A Sorted Collection. Cambridge University Press.
• 1997. Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns. Prentice Hall.
• 2000. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change. Addison-Wesley. Winner of the Jolt Productivity Award.
• 2000. Planning Extreme Programming. With Martin Fowler. Addison-Wesley.
• 2002. Test-Driven Development by Example. Addison-Wesley. Winner of the Jolt Productivity Award.

Beck's concept of test-driven development centers on two basic rules:

1. Never write a single line of code unless you have a failing automated test.

1. Eliminate duplication.

The book illustrates the use of unit testing as part of the methodology, including examples in Java and Python. One section includes using test-driven development to develop a unit testing framework.

• 2003. Contributing to Eclipse: Principles, Patterns, and Plugins. With Erich Gamma. Addison-Wesley.
• 2004. JUnit Pocket Guide. O'Reilly.
• 2004. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, 2nd Edition. With Cynthia Andres. Addison-Wesley. Completely rewritten.
• 2008. Implementation Patterns. Addison-Wesley.
• 2023. Tidy First?: A Daily Exercise in Empirical Software Design. O'Reilly.

Selected papers

• 1987. "Using Pattern Languages for Object-Oriented Programs". With Ward Cunningham. OOPSLA'87.
• 1989. "A Laboratory For Teaching Object-Oriented Thinking". With Ward Cunningham. OOPSLA'89.
• 1989. "Simple Smalltalk Testing: With Patterns". SUnit framework, origin of xUnit frameworks.

External links

• KentBeck on the WikiWikiWeb
• Sample chapter of Kent's book, IMPLEMENTATION PATTERNS
• TalkWare Podcast interview with Kent Beck
• FLOSS Weekly interview with Kent Beck
• Kent Beck's Notes at Facebook
• Kent Beck on unit testing
• Being Human Podcast - A conversation with Kent Beck
• Kent Beck website

Notes and References

1. "Extreme Programming", Computerworld (online), 2005, webpage: Computerworld-appdev-92.
2. https://www.facebook.com/notes/kent-beck/my-personal-mission/1811782322187957/ "Given my newly independent status after seven years at Facebook..."
3. News: Meet the influential programmer who's helping $3.8 billion Gusto make sure that its software always stays ahead of the times. 2019-09-04. Business Insider.
4. Web site: Kent Beck . Beck, Kent . LinkedIn . March 5, 2012.
5. Book: Highsmith. Jim. Jim Highsmith. Agile Software Development Ecosystems. February 18, 2024 . 298. Addison-Wesley Professional . 978-0-201-76043-9.