Chicago Software Process Improvement
Network (C-SPIN) Meeting
Thursday, April 5, 2001
Software development is still
done with very little process and discipline. This is a known problem and for
many years there have been processes that try to fix this. But most of these
have had their own faults, in particular adding a large burden of work that
adds questionable value. In the last few years a new breed of "agile"
processes has appeared. These seek to provide a process that's better suited to
the nature of software development, particularly in situations where the requirements
are volatile and not well understood.
In this talk Mr. Fowler will
discuss these agile processes, looking at the things that make them different
from more traditional processes. He will also talk about their similarities and
differences, with an emphasis on the best known and most controversial of these
processes known as XP or Extreme Programming.
Martin Fowler is the Chief Scientist for ThoughtWorks, an Internet professional services provider specializing in the delivery of highly strategic B2B e-Commerce solutions. For a decade he was an independent consultant pioneering the use of objects in developing business information systems. He's worked with technologies including Smalltalk, C++, object and relational databases, and EJB with domains including leasing, payroll, derivatives trading and healthcare. He is particularly known for his work in patterns, the UML, lightweight methodologies, and refactoring. He has written four books: Analysis Patterns, Refactoring, the award winning UML Distilled, and Planning Extreme Programming.