Kent Beck Quotes

• I'm not a great programmer; I'm just a good programmer with great habits.

  Kent Beck

  Greatness, Professionalism, Habit

  Jay Fields, Shane Harvie, Martin Fowler, Kent Beck (2009). “Refactoring: Ruby Edition”, p.74, Pearson Education

  71 Copy quote

• Make it work, make it right, make it fast.

  Kent Beck

  15 Copy quote

• 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.

  Kent Beck

  Team, Technology, Inability

  Kent Beck (2000). “Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change”, p.28, Addison-Wesley Professional

  55 Copy quote

• A plan is an example of what could happen, not a prediction of what will happen.

  Kent Beck

  Example, Predictions, Plans

  24 Copy quote

• Sometimes the problem has to mature before the solution can mature.

  Kent Beck

  Problem, Sometimes, Mature

  Twitter post from Aug 26, 2010

  13 Copy quote

• Testing is not the point. The point is about responsibility.

  Kent Beck

  Responsibility, Programming, Slacker

  19 Copy quote

• If you're having trouble succeeding, fail.

  Kent Beck

  Succeed, Failing, Trouble

  Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres (2004). “Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change”, p.32, Addison-Wesley Professional

  12 Copy quote

• Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming; feedback is the treatment.

  Kent Beck

  Technology, Optimism, Hazards

  Kent Beck (2000). “Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change”, p.31, Addison-Wesley Professional

  22 Copy quote

• Of the four project development variables - scope, cost, time and quality - quality isn't really a free variable. The only possible values are "excellent" and "insanely excellent", depending on whether lives are at stake.

  Kent Beck

  Quality, Cost, Development

  Kent Beck (2000). “Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change”, p.38, Addison-Wesley Professional

  16 Copy quote

• If testing costs more than not testing, then don't test.

  Kent Beck

  Cost, Tests, Testing

  11 Copy quote

• Listening, Testing, Coding, Designing. That's all there is to software. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.

  Kent Beck

  Design, Listening, Different

  15 Copy quote

• I've known people who have not mastered their tools who are good programmers, but not a tool master who remained a mediocre programmer.

  Kent Beck

  People, Tools, Masters

  Twitter post from Nov 08, 2013

  15 Copy quote

• I don't like the feeling, but I've got to say that a little fear makes me a more focused, more responsible programmer.

  Kent Beck

  Feelings, Littles, Responsible

  20 Copy quote

• How good the design is doesn't matter near as much as whether the design is getting better or worse. If it is getting better, day by day, I can live with it forever. If it is getting worse, I will die.

  Kent Beck

  Simplicity, Design, Forever

  10 Copy quote

• Learning research tells us that the time lag from experiment to feedback is critical.

  Kent Beck

  Design, Research, Lag

  10 Copy quote

• I tell people to start implementing when they are pretty sure there aren't more important stories out there. An iteration's worth of data is worth months of speculation.

  Kent Beck

  Data, People, Important

  14 Copy quote

• Responsible Development is the style of development I aspire to now. It can be summarized by answering the question, How would I develop if it were my money? I'm amazed how many theoretical arguments evaporate when faced with this question.

  Kent Beck

  Style, Development, Argument

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  Kent Beck

  Giving Up, Simple, Ideas

  13 Copy quote

• The system metaphor is a story that everyone--customers, programmers, and managers--can tell about how the system works.

  Kent Beck

  Stories, Metaphor, Programmers

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Kent Beck

  Honesty, Responsibility, Practice

  9 Copy quote

• I mean, source code in files; how quaint, how seventies!

  Kent Beck

  Mean, Quaint, Source

  7 Copy quote

• The community isn't nearly as afraid as it thinks it is.

  Kent Beck

  Thinking, Community

  4 Copy quote

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