Kent Beck created Extreme Programming, helped pioneer test-driven development, and was the first signatory of the Agile Manifesto. At Prodacity 2026 he talked about what craft means now that a model is writing much of the code.

In this session:

• Why Beck calls it the genie, and why plausible code is not working code
• Features and futures: how every feature you ship burns some of your options for change
• Resting between the notes, and what teams do in the space between features
• One-shot versus iterative, and why spec-driven development is waterfall wearing a new coat
• What he found in formal methods with Lean, and the gap he still cannot bridge
• Effort, output, outcome, mission: a revision Beck worked out during Day 1, and what Goodhart's law does to any measure taken too early

Recorded live at Prodacity 2026 in Nashville. Prodacity is Rise8's 3-day training event for GovTech leaders delivering mission-critical software.