Kent Beck, Creator of JUnit and Pioneer of eXtreme Programming, Becomes Agitar Software Fellow

Beck to accelerate Agitar Software’s mission to make developer testing a ubiquitous software development practice.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 3, 2004 - Agitar Software, the leader in developer testing for the enterprise, today announced that Kent Beck has become an Agitar Software Fellow. Kent Beck is a recognized industry visionary and innovator in software quality. He is the inventor of eXtreme Programming (XP), creator of JUnit - the most widely used testing framework for Java - and he is the author of seminal books about XP, JUnit, Test Driven Development, and Patterns for Software Development.

"There is a strong movement towards increased accountability for software developers and software development organizations. Accountability is expected from every other profession in the world, and now software developers are being held accountable too," said Kent Beck. "Developer Testing is a important step towards accountability. It gives developers a way to demonstrate the quality of the software they produce. Developing transparently, they become more productive by wasting less time reworking errors."

"Kent Beck is one of my heroes," said Alberto Savoia, co-founder and CTO of Agitar Software. "He is a world-class agitator who has already shaken up software development practices with JUnit and XP. Agitar would not exist today without the foundation laid by Beck and JUnit."

Kent Beck adds: "Agitator and the Agitar Management Dashboard lower the barriers to accountability in software development and increase the value of developer testing. 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."

"We are honored that Kent Beck has joined our company," said Jerry Rudisin, CEO of Agitar Software. "Almost every serious software development organization has experimented with developer testing – they see the value but want to do more and do it better. Agitar is delivering the future of developer testing for Java, and with Kent Beck’s assistance we will make even more rapid progress. In addition Kent will be instrumental in making sure that Agitar solutions are perfectly adapted to XP, which we support along with all other major software development processes."

About Agitar’s Products
Agitator intelligently exercises Java code to discover its behavior and presents observations to the developer. Developers can convert Agitator’s observations into unit-tests with a single click. This unique process, called "Software Agitation," helps developers create thorough sets of reusable unit tests. Agitation lets developers edit and enhance their code with confidence, helping them prevent errors as they write or modify their programs.

The Agitar Management Dashboard provides unprecedented data, visibility, and control over the developer testing process. The Management Dashboard lets development teams set testing targets based on risk, resource availability, and schedules. It gives in-depth reports on test quality with details by project, package, class, and method.

About Agitar
Agitar Software is the leader in enterprise developer testing. Agitar automates the manual process of unit-test creation and provides unprecedented management visibility into the quality process, letting software developers build quality in instead of testing bugs out. Preventing bugs during development brings organizations better software quality, shorter development cycles, and lower software lifecycle costs. Agitar makes software development organizations worldwide more productive and more competitive, and helps them meet the increasing demand for openness and transparency about the software they deliver or acquire. Agitar is a private company based in Mountain View, California with venture backing from Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates. For more information, please visit http://www.agitar.com.

About Kent Beck
Kent Beck is the Founder and Director of Three Rivers Institute (TRI). His career has combined the practice of software development with reflection, innovation, and communication. His contributions to software development include patterns for software, the rediscovery of test-first programming, the xUnit family of developer testing tools, and Extreme Programming. He currently divides his time between writing, programming, and coaching. Beck is the author/co-author of Contributing to Eclipse, Test-Driven Development: By Example, Extreme Programming Explained, Planning Extreme Programming, The Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns, and the forthcoming JUnit Pocket Guide. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Oregon.

Agitar is a registered trademark, and Agitator is a trademark of Agitar Software, Inc. All other company and product names are the property of their respective owners.

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Editorial Contact:
Craig Oda
PageOnePR for Agitar Software
Ph: +1 650.473.0600 ext 102
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