My name is Hein Saris. I work for Beta Nine?, a software company focused on object, inter-/intranet and Java technology, since 1997.

I started my professional career in 1991 as a Smalltalk programmer for VTM, where I was part of the team that automized the programming department of the tv-station, which eventually led to the foundation of OO Partners, which became MediaGeniX.

After leaving VTM, I continued working as a Smalltalk developer and joined Roots NV. In the fall of 1997, I decided to move to Java, and joined my friend Sven Van Caekenberghe, whom I met at university, and who had just founded Beta Nine.

About three years ago, I became Java teacher for Sun Belgium. I have given courses for them both in Brussels and throughout Europe.

I first learned about XP through an invitation from MediaGeniX, when they invited Kent Beck to explain XP for them. Since then I started to read about it and have put it in practice at Beta Nine?. We have succesfully done a six person, 18 months project in 90% XP style (it's not easy to do 100% :-).

My favorite XP practices are unit testing, pair programming, and the planning game.