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 More Quotes by Kent Beck More Quotes From Kent Beck I mean, source code in files; how quaint, how seventies! Kent Beck quaint source mean 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. Kent Beck step you change simple Extreme programming is an emotional experience. Kent Beck programming experience emotional There's a huge latent market for software development that's just flat-out honest. Kent Beck just software honest development The problem is, in software design, often the consequences of your decisions don't become apparent for years. Kent Beck consequences your design problem Whether you draw diagrams that generate code or you type at a browser, you are coding. Kent Beck coding you code type The world is changing, and I believe that, if I want to stay employed as a programmer, I'm going to have to change with it. Kent Beck change want believe world One of the advantages of having to live with JUnit for 8 years is now we can look back and see which decisions we made worked nicely and which we would have done differently. Kent Beck live back see look I think it's a combination of technical and social factors that leads to all the defects in deployed software. Kent Beck i-think think combination software There is a strong movement towards increased accountability for software developers and software development organizations. Kent Beck accountability development strong Developer testing is an important step towards accountability. It gives developers a way to demonstrate the quality of the software they produce. Kent Beck step quality important way Agitator and the Agitar Management Dashboard lower the barriers to accountability in software development and increase the value of developer testing. Kent Beck value software development management I used Agitator on some code I had unit-tested, and it made me a better tester. As an Agitar Fellow, I look forward to the leverage of working with an outstanding organization as together we continue to improve the value of developer testing. Kent Beck value look me together I lived near Santa Cruz for ten years, and the whole time, it bothered me what an exclusionary definition of 'inclusion' was in force. Social censure was applied to those who expressed unpopular or uncomfortable ideas. Kent Beck me santa time ideas There are musicians who want to make a living making music. There are listeners who want to listen to music. Complicating this relationship is a whole bunch of history: some of the music I want to listen to was made a while ago in a different economy. Some of the models of making a living making music are no longer valid but persist. Kent Beck musicians music relationship history My great-grandfather played organ for silent movies. Talkies in, Gramps out. Kent Beck great-grandfather out movies silent When Pandora doesn't pay, and bars don't pay, and weddings don't pay, and nobody buys CDs or shirts or concert tickets or lessons, then the musician can't make a living making music. Kent Beck concert nobody living music Sheet music, recording, radio, television, cassettes, CD burners, and file sharing have all invalidated, to some extent, the old model of making a living making music. Kent Beck sharing living music television Received wisdom is that if you spend time up front getting the design right, you avoid costs later. But the longer you spend getting the design right, the more your upfront costs are, and the longer it takes for the software to start earning. Kent Beck you design wisdom time A rational model of software is to design it quickly - the economic pressure to improvise presents an interesting challenge. Kent Beck challenge design pressure interesting