Quotes from Kent Beck

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

Simplicity only makes sense in context. If I'm writing a parser with a team that understands parser generators, then using a parser generator is simple. If the team doesn't know anything about parsing and the language is simple, a recursive descent parser is simpler.

Folk wisdom in software development teaches that interfaces shouldn't be unduly influenced by implementations. Writing a test first is a concrete way to achieve this separation.

The difference between what I think is valuable and what is really valuable creates waste.

no matter what the client says the problem is, it is always a people problem.

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

Do The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work

Responsibility cannot be assigned; it can only be accepted. If someone tries to give you responsibility, only you can decide if you are responsible or if you aren't.

Write tests until fear is transformed into boredom

Given the choice between an extremely skilled loner and a competent-but-social programmer, XP teams consistently choose the more social candidate. The best interviewing technique is to have the candidate work with the team for a day. Pair programming provides an excellent test of technical and social skills.

Saying that programmers should just accomplish twice as much doesn't work. They can gain skills and effectiveness, but they cannot get more done on demand. More time at the desk does not equal increased productivity for creative work.

If you're happy slamming some code together that more or less works and you're happy never looking at the result again, TDD is not for you. TDD rests on a charmingly naïve geekoid assumption that if you write better code, you'll be more successful. TDD helps you to pay attention to the right issues at the right time so you can make your designs cleaner, you can refine your designs as you learn.

Brilliance in a scientist does not consist in being right more often but in being wrong about more interesting topics.

The XP philosophy is to start where you are now and move towards the ideal. From where you are now, could you improve a little bit?

I've sat through far too many "crying in the beer" sessions where all the energy for change was dissipated in the intensity of the complaining. Once you see an idea for improvement that makes sense to you, do it.

In software development, "perfect" is a verb, not an adjective. There is no perfect process. There is no perfect design. There are no perfect stories. You can, however, perfect your process, your design, and your stories.

McConnell writes, "In ten years the pendulum has swung from 'design everything' to 'design nothing.' But the alternative to BDUF [Big Design Up Front] isn't no design up front, it's a Little Design Up Front (LDUF) or Enough Design Up Front (ENUF)." This is a strawman argument. The alternative to designing before implementing is designing after implementing.

Software development is a game of insight, and insight comes to the prepared, rested, relaxed mind.

Without planning, we are individuals with haphazard connections and effectiveness. We are a team when we plan and work in harmony.

If you have a month to plan a project in detail, spend it on four one-week iterations developing while you improve your estimates. If you have a week to plan a project, hold five one-day iterations. Feedback cycles give you information and the experience to make accurate estimates.

Pair programmers: Keep each other on task. Brainstorm refinements to the system. Clarify ideas. Take initiative when their partner is stuck, thus lowering frustration. Hold each other accountable to the team's practices. Pairing

Sit Together Develop in an open space big enough for the whole team. Meet the need for privacy and "owned" space by having small private spaces nearby or by limiting work hours so team members can get their privacy needs met elsewhere.

Rather than apply minutes of suspect reasoning, we can just ask the computer by making the change and running the tests.

Beta testing is a symptom of weak testing practices and poor communication with customers.