Beans have been used to refer to many different kinds of Java classes over the years. The oldest use of a bean is from 1996, when Sun introduced JavaBeans as a term for a reusable software component for Java that defined a series of rules as to how a Java class should be developed. Those original rules have become ubiquitous to the point that the term JavaBeans is rarely, if ever, used anymore.

Since that initial use of the bean in 1996, there have been many uses of the term in third-party frameworks such as Seam and Spring. The term was also used in EE specifications for Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and Java Server Faces (JSF) where they were called Managed Beans . Even though the term "bean" had been used by various specifications within the Java EE platform, there was never a consistent or clear definition of what a bean is made of and how it could be utilized.

With the release of Java EE 6 in December 2009, for the first time the Managed Bean specification brought a common standard and definition of a bean to the entire Java EE platform. This definition was expanded upon within the EJB and CDI companion specifications of Java EE 6 and will continue to be utilized as more EE specifications continue to adopt the definition of a managed bean.