Kent Beck

Kent Beck (b. 1961) is an American software engineer, one of the creators of extreme programming software development methodologies (eXtreme Programming or XP) and test-driven development. (Test-Driven Development or TDD), also called agile methodology. Beck was one of the original 17 signatories to the Agile Manifesto in 2001.

Beck holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Oregon.

<p With Ward Cunningham he popularized the CRC card methodology, and with Erich Gamma the unitary test framework for Java known as Junit.

Kent lives in Medford, Oregon and currently works for Facebook.

HISTORY

Kent Beck studied at the University of Oregon between 1979 and 1998, where he obtained a degree and a master's degree in computer science.

In 1996 he was hired by Chrysler to work in his exhaustive compensation system, Kent Beck, in turn, brought Ron Jeffries to work with him. In March 1996 they estimated that the system would be delivered a year later. In 1997, the development team adopted a new form of work which is known today as extreme programming. With this work methodology the objective of delivering the system in a year was achieved.

PUBLICATIONS

Books

• 1996. Smalltalk, best practice patterns (Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns). Prentice Hall. (ISBN 978-0134769042, ISBN 0-13-476904-X)
• 1996. Kent Beck Guide for Best Smalltalk: An Orderly Collection (Kent Beck's Guide to Better Smalltalk: A Sorted Collection). Cambridge University Press. (ISBN 978-0521644372)
• 1999. Programming eXtrema explained: Accepting change (Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change). Addison-Wesley. Winner of the Jolt Prize for productivity. (ISBN 978-0321278654, ISBN 84-7829-055-9)
• 2000. Planning eXtrema Programming (Planning Extreme Programming). Written along with Martin Fowler. Addison-Wesley. (ISBN 978-0201710915, ISBN 0-201-71091-9)
• 2002. Test-guided development: Using Examples (Test-Driven Development: By Example). Addison-Wesley. Winner of the Jolt Prize for productivity. (ISBN 978-0321146533, ISBN 0-321-14653-0)
• 2003. Contributing with Eclipse: Principles, Patterns, and Extentions (Contributing to Eclipse: Principles, Patterns, and Plugins). Written along with Erich Gamma. Addison-Wesley. (ISBN 978-0321205759)
• 2004. JUnit pocket guide (JUnit Pocket Guide). O'Reilly. (ISBN 978-0596007430)
• 2005. Programming eXtrema explained: Accepting change, 2.a Edition (Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, 2nd Edition). Written along with Cynthia Andres. Addison-Wesley. Completely rewritten. (ISBN 978-0201616415)
• 2008. Implementing patterns (Implementation Patterns). Addison-Wesley. (ISBN 978-0321413093)

Essays

• 1987. "Using language patterns for object-oriented programs." Written along with Ward Cunningham. UNRWALA'87.
• 1989. "A lab to teach to think object orientation." Written along with Ward Cunningham. UNRWALA'89.
• 1989. "Simple tests for Smalltalk: With patterns." Origins of xUnit frameworks.