# Kent Beck

> Kent Beck is the creator of Extreme Programming (XP) and a pioneer of Test-Driven Development, pair programming, and the Agile Manifesto. A programmer with 52+ years of experience, he co-created JUnit with Erich Gamma, co-invented CRC cards and design patterns in software with Ward Cunningham, and spent seven years coaching at Facebook. Today he runs the 'Software Design: Tidy First?' Substack newsletter (123,500+ subscribers in 195 countries), hosts the Still Burning podcast, and explores augmented human-AI coding. In April 2026 he publicly announced a Parkinson's disease diagnosis, continuing his mission to help technologists feel safe in the world.

- **Role:** Independent - Newsletter Author, Coach & Speaker
- **Organizations:** Mechanical Orchard (former Chief Scientist), Gusto (former Software Fellow), Facebook/Meta (former Technical Coach), Hillside Group (co-founder)
- **From:** Silicon Valley, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. Computer and Information Science, University of Oregon, M.S. Computer and Information Science, University of Oregon
- **Known for:** Creator of Extreme Programming (XP) methodology, Pioneer of Test-Driven Development (TDD), Co-creator of JUnit (the most widely-used Java testing framework) with Erich Gamma

## Career timeline

- **1980s** — Collaborated with Ward Cunningham at Tektronix; co-invented pair programming, HotDraw framework, and CRC cards
- **1987** — Co-presented foundational OOPSLA paper on design patterns with Ward Cunningham
- **1989** — Published SUnit paper - the origin of the entire xUnit testing framework family
- **1993** — Co-founded the Hillside Group; launched PLoP (Pattern Languages of Programming) conference series
- **1996** — Joined Chrysler C3 project - the crucible where Extreme Programming was born
- **1999** — Published 'Extreme Programming Explained' (Jolt Award) and co-authored 'Refactoring' with Martin Fowler
- **2001** — Organized precursor meeting and signed the Agile Manifesto at Snowbird, Utah
- **2002** — Published 'Test-Driven Development: By Example' (Jolt Award)
- **2003** — Co-authored JUnit testing framework for Java with Erich Gamma
- **2011** — Joined Facebook as Technical Coach; surprised to find zero automated testing
- **2019** — Left Facebook over 'irreconcilable differences'; joined Gusto as Software Fellow
- **2022** — Became Chief Scientist at Mechanical Orchard (legacy IT modernization startup)
- **2023** — Published 'Tidy First?' (O'Reilly); launched Tidy First? Substack newsletter
- **2025** — Held first Thinkie World Congress; launched Still Burning podcast
- **2026** — Publicly announced Parkinson's disease diagnosis; newsletter reaches 123,500+ subscribers in 195 countries

## Achievements

- Creator of Extreme Programming (XP) methodology
- Pioneer of Test-Driven Development (TDD)
- Co-creator of JUnit (the most widely-used Java testing framework) with Erich Gamma
- Inventor of SUnit for Smalltalk - parent of the entire xUnit framework family
- Co-inventor of pair programming with Ward Cunningham
- Co-inventor of CRC (Class-Responsibility-Collaboration) cards
- One of 17 original Agile Manifesto signatories (February 2001)
- Co-founded the Hillside Group, which started the PLoP conference series
- Two Jolt Productivity Awards (XP Explained and TDD: By Example)
- 52+ years of programming experience
- Newsletter 'Software Design: Tidy First?' with 123,500+ subscribers in 195 countries
- Developer of the 3X (Explore/Expand/Extract) product lifecycle framework
- Author of 11+ books on software design, methodology, and development practices

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Publicly announced Parkinson's disease diagnosis and 28-month battle with Curvularia meningitis (causing ~10 strokes) on Substack
- **2026-03** — Launched 'Still Burning' podcast - Episode 1: 'Nobody Knows'
- **2025-12** — Newsletter reaches 123,500+ subscribers in 195 countries with 32% open rate
- **2025-06** — Held first Thinkie World Congress - annual conference on 90 creative thinking habits
- **2025-03** — Completed BPlusTree3 project: B+ Tree in Rust & Python built via augmented coding over 4 weeks
- **2024-06** — Spoke at GOTO Chicago 2024 and GOTO Copenhagen 2024 on AI-assisted development
- **2023-10** — Published 'Tidy First? A Personal Exercise in Empirical Design' with O'Reilly

## Links

- Website: https://kentbeck.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentbeck/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/KentBeck
- GitHub: https://github.com/KentBeck
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KentLBeck

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kent-beck
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-24