I love this about Kent Beck’s approach. Each step in a design removes uncertainty. Each step is a question of how to learn something you didn’t know before in order to move forward. That’s a totally different way of looking at it versus “What’s my next to-do?”
Got a web design project in mind? Find a web designer on Sortfolio. Browse by visual style, portfolio, budget, and geographic location.
Over 1 million people use 37signals' simple web-based software to collaborate on projects, track contacts, and organize their business with an intranet.
7 comments so far
Matt 12 Jul 11
really enjoy this. a thought provoking way to think about iterative design.
Rob Colburn 13 Jul 11
@AC. It’s missing a bit of context right?
—For those who already understand. TL;DR
Say, you’re working on the design for something like “High Rise Contacts”, you’ve got an idea on loves and hates. Where do you go next?
Kent’s Perspective: First, define scope the what you’re doing by asking yourself “how much do i need to do learn the next lesson? how little can i possibly do?” Another words, each iterative design is a learning experience. Just do enough, so that you can test if the concept.
Mike Surel 13 Jul 11
I think the “approach” is thought provoking like horoscopes. It is beautifully vague and allows every reader to bring their own experience to it and fill in a LOT of blanks. It’s not an approach so much as something you might find inside of a fortune cookie.
I’ve seen many, many illogical outcomes that were arrived at one logical step at a time.
Matt 13 Jul 11
@Mike – I think the idea of redefining the problem from ‘what do we need to build’ to ‘what do we need to learn’ is more concrete that you give it credit for. Since an large part of an iterative approach is about learning constraints and requirements anyway, this redefinition that is being communicated has some merit.
Anonymous Coward 13 Jul 11
Not everything written by Kent Beck is worth quoting.
EH 13 Jul 11
There’s a danger of reinventing wheels in his approach. NIH syndrome applied to one’s own brain and/or tasklist.
Andrew 17 Jul 11
Err, OK? I think.
Comments are closed