KentBeck

Software Design

Make it run, make it right, make it fast — Douglas Beck, my Pappy

Why care about software design? Software creates value two ways:

• Today's future cash flows
• Optionality for new cash flows

Software design creates optionality.

Twenty five years into my career, in 2005, I was invited to sit on a panel with Ed Yourdon & Larry Constantine, authors of Structured Design, the book that introduced the terms "coupling" & "cohesion". Digging into the book in preparation, I realized that these pioneers had long ago laid out the equivalent of Newton's Laws of Motion for software design.

Eighteen years later I finally published Tidy First? A Personal Exercise in Empirical Design, the first book in a series on Empirical Software Design. I also published The Good News Factory, an executive briefing on software design. I'm currently working on the third book in the series, Tidy Together.

My newsletter, Tidy First, gives paying subscribers instant access to chapters as I draft them.

Thinkies

I'm often asked, "How did you think of that?" I was surprised to find that I often have an answer — some trick of thinking that I learned along the way that generated the idea in question.

For example, whenever someone says, "We can't do X because of Y," I habitually transform that to, "When Y is no longer true then we can do X." If making Y no longer true seems plausible, I suggest it. "We can't deploy more often because of all the bugs? So you're saying when we have fewer bugs we can deploy more often?" "How'd you think of that?" It's just a trick.

I've been collecting these little idea generators for 30 years. My collection numbers around 90. The first Thinkie World Congress was held in 2025.

Here's a Thinkie tutorial. Paid subscribers to my newsletter receive a Thinkie each week as well as early access to the Thinkies conference.

Consulting

I've heard all sorts of cynical jokes about consulting — the person who demands your watch then charges you to tell you the time. My experience is that yes there are incentives pushing consulting in the direction of extraction. However, there are also magic moments for consulting engagement. I live for those moments.

My consulting practice is built on the following principles:

• Presence. I want to be completely present to you, your team, & your context.
• Clarity. I tend to blunt communication as subtlety tends to fly over my head.
• Action. Let's do something together, something you can refine & expand after my visit is over.
• Boundaries. I'm here to care for you, but not at the expense of myself.

Contact me for a quote on a consulting engagement.

Music

I started playing when my mother enrolled me in Mrs. Card's guitar class in summer school. My Pappy had given up on the Blue Chip Stamp Store guitar he had bought & handed it down to me. That was 1969, the tail of the folk boom.

I've played & sang ever since. I don't perform in public. Instead, music for me is an exercise in patterns. I hear the song in my head until I give in & learn it.

I'm privileged to own, or rather borrow, an amazing collection of handmade instruments. I recommend any of these luthiers:

• Daryl Perry
• Dontcho Ivanov
• Chris Holcomb
• Danny Koentopp
• James Goodall
• Sean Spurling
• Klein & Kauffman
• Bart Reiter Banjos

The patterns, improvisation, and collaboration in music parallel the rhythms of software development.

Poker

When playing poker my chattering mind stills, focused on the cards in front of me, my opponent, the math of the situation, & my own feelings & cognition. Okay, maybe "stills" isn't the right word. I'm fully engaged. That's better.

I write about my poker experiences at Kent Beck Poker.