| Jim Batterson | James
Bullock | Pat Ferdinandi | Fritz
| Phil Fuhrer | Jesse Gordon | Don
Gray | Brian
Gulino | Peter Harris | Joseph Howard
| Kevin Huigens | Steve Jackson
| James Jarrett |
Bob King | Dave Kleist | Henry
Knapp | Brian Knopp | Fredric Laurentine
| Pat McGee |
Nate McNamara | George Olsen | Mark
Passolt | Sue Petersen | Dwayne
Phillips | Brian
Richter | Sharon Marsh Roberts | Brett
Schuchert | Stuart Scott | Dave Smith
| Steve Smith | Daniel
Starr | Wayne Strider | Pete TerMaat
| Phil Trice | Bill Trierweiler
| Marianne
Tromp | Jerry Weinberg | Kay Wise
Jim Batterson Jim Batterson
is an independent consultant living in Richmond, Virginia. He is currently interested
in the craft of storytelling, and in particular, positive and uplifting stories
from the annals of the cubicle farm that so many of us in the technical world
call our home away from home. top James
Bach www.satisfice.com James
Bach is the founder and principal consultant of Satisfice, Inc., a software testing
laboratory in Front Royal, Virginia. He specializes in rapid software testing
techniques. James learned his craft on the job at Apple Computer and Borland International,
and through the ministrations of many wonderful mentors and colleagues. top Marie
A. Benesh Marie is principal of Benesh & Associates, an IT management
consulting firm. With her wide range of experience in IT management, Marie advises
clients on the issues that arise in managing human resources, strategy development
and implementation, organization design, team development, and large-scale project
definition and management. Marie combines a strong background in technology and
enterprise architecture with a natural talent for implementing the governance
and people structures that make an organizational architecture effective.
Marie has implemented leading practices in software engineering for organizations,
and understands the management of application development organizations. She has
a wealth of experience in project assessment and consulting in PeopleSoft, an
ERP-based system. She has utilized her skills in Program Management, Infrastructure
Implementation and Management, Release Management, IT/User Test Planning, and
Implementation within the university and corporate arenas. Her clientele include
major universities and Fortune 500 corporations. She focuses much of her
consulting on the development of IT leadership skills through individual coaching
and mentoring, performance-based review and development processes, and team design
and management. Marie participates actively in groups that are focused on uncovering
leading practices in IT management and in providing experiential learning opportunities
for leaders. top James
Bullock In his more than eighteen years of building systems, from lab
automation and high-volume embedded controls to enterprise data warehousing and
ERP deployments, James Bullock has been everything from a coding "grunt"
to a high-priced consultant. Some of his embedded controls are still deployed,
and a data warehouse he architected six years ago is still in use, among other
apparent successes. More important to James is the contact he maintains with some
folks from previous projects -- people who not only built something good, but
enjoyed doing it. Over time, James has become more interested in how we
go about building systems than in the systems themselves. Jerry Weinberg's SHAPE
forum allows him to explore that. top Pat
Ferdinandi www.SBDi-consulting.com
Pat is the president of Strategic Business Decisions, a consulting
company specializing in requirements engineering, project management, and process
improvement. Pat's latest contribution is the introduction of a Requirements Pattern
(including Anti-Patterns) that assists in capturing a fuller requirements set
for any type of project. The Requirements Pattern is currently being used by Fortune
500 companies and will be discussed in her forthcoming book: A Requirements Pattern:
Succeeding in an Internet Economy. As a diversion from the hectic pace
of Wall Street, Pat -- with the help of her two-and-a-half-year-old Solomon Island
Eclectus, Scarlet -- developed a Companion Parrot Care Guide as a donation to
the Oasis Sanctuary Foundation (www.the-oasis.org). This thirty-six-page booklet
eases the transfer involved in temporary vacations and provides instructions for
permanent care by fully describing the specific needs of your parrot. top Fritz Fritz
has facilitated the technical work of system administrators by developing software
tools; now he's learning to facilitate the human work of tool developers. top Phil
Fuhrer Phil Fuhrer is a systems architect at VoiceCue Technologies,
which provides voice recognition, response, real-time billing, and provisioning
systems for wireless networks. Previously, with thirty years of experience at
Bell Laboratories, Phil was responsible for architecture, reliability, performance,
network management, and requirements for telephone switching and other systems.
His career spans analog and digital networks, and he is looking forward to implementing
wireless broadband services. He specializes in reviews, human development, and
team effectiveness. top Jesse
M. Gordon Jesse M. Gordon is a software performance analyst for
IBM, in Austin, Texas. He creates systems-level views of how software systems
are put together and of how their components interact. These understandings make
it possible for him to improve the software's performance. Jesse joined
IBM in 1990 after earning a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania
and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. Between undergraduate
and graduate school, he worked for three years as a software systems analyst for
BDM International in McLean, Virginia. top Don
Gray Don Gray works with manufacturers integrating people, processes,
and projects. This work involves everything from the people involved to the sensors
to the production/process data. Don's been working as an independent consultant
since 1984. He likes solving problems and working with people. He's currently
working on a better understanding of how people interact in solving complex technical
problems. Having taught general computing (both software and hardware) and application-specific
classes, Don has a unique perspective on life (who else would write an article
entitled "How to Kill a Software Company"?) top Brian
Gulino Brian Gulino builds databases and database-backed Websites.
He works closely with several companies in southern California that do hardware
integration, hardware design, and Web-based instruction. top Peter
Harris Deadlines, software bugs.
All are vanquished with a smile.
Coder treads lightly. top Joseph
Howard I am 39, and am currently a consultant. I have programmed
computers from the age of 12, on PCs, UNIX, and mainframes, and I've led a number
of relatively successful large and small projects. I am married with two children.
I spent six years in the U.S. Army as a programmer, a barracks sergeant, and a
medic. I paint, fix my boat, read history, and play the recorder (a Blockflute).
I have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from NY Regents, and I am currently
working on a master's degree in Computer Science. Readers may note I don't
mind making exploratory statements in a forum to sound out ideas. It's just a
forum, a sandbox, to test and brainstorm what might be alternative thoughts with
other thinkers. If everyone agrees at the outset, there is nothing to learn. I
do feel that historically successful leaders studied previously successful leaders.
Many successful leaders wrote well about leadership. top Kevin
Huigens Kevin Huigens is a principal consultant for a software management
consulting firm. A graduate of the December 1993 PSL workshop, Kevin has nineteen
years of experience in all aspects of software management: coding, testing, requirements
analysis, project management, and more. top Steven
D Jackson Steven D. Jackson is principal management engineer at S. D.
Jackson & Associates, an international management consulting organization
specializing in assisting firms to substantially increase profits through internally
driven process improvements. Steve has considerable experience in implementing
quality system processes and has worked for more than thirty years in all aspects
of engineering and project management. An international speaker and author,
Steve has developed and delivered many training courses on quality and management
subjects. As a Certified Quality Auditor and Certified Quality Manager, Steve
has taught certification preparation classes for local sections of the American
Society for Quality. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering/Business Management
and a Master's in Computer Science from Nova University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Steve enjoys backpacking in the mountains and is a competition handgun
shooter. top James
Jarrett James Jarrett is a lead software designer at Rockwell Automation
in Cleveland, Ohio. Specializing in interaction design, requirements engineering,
and object-oriented development, he leads teams to deliver products that delight
their users. Jim thrives on being a catalyst in his organization, helping it move
toward best practices and high-performance teams. With varied interests including
sociology, science policy, and digital media, he brings a multidisciplinary perspective
and a strong intuitive sense to his work and his world. top Bob
King I work with people on project teams to build and document the shared
understanding needed to get projects started on the path to success. Specifically,
I work with project managers to write statements of work, with analysts to facilitate
requirements gathering and analysis, and with senior technical people to design
the solution. I have more than twenty-one years of experience: in the first sixteen,
working myself up and out of American Express, and in the last five, as an independent
consultant. top Dave
Kleist Dave Kleist, always interested in the next challenge, has
held a variety of positions in the IT field during the last sixteen years, including
project manager, account manager, instructor, and developer. He's even conned
a few unsuspecting editors into publishing articles that he's written. Currently,
Dave is the technical architect in the North American Best Practices Lab for Adaytum,
Inc. top Henry
Knapp Holding a B.A. and an M.S. from UCSD (1969, 1971), Henry Knapp
went into software engineering full-time in 1981, after using computers to run
complex simulations for a number of years. He has since led the development of
computer games, order entry and billing systems, process control systems, signal
processing systems, and operating system software in the U.S., Switzerland, and
Taiwan. He currently leads a group that develops storage management software for
the Solaris operating system. top Brian
Knopp Brian Knopp has worked in the software industry for the past
twelve years. His initial work was in DOS, but since 1994, he has developed Windows
applications using Visual Basic against the three major SQL platforms. Recently,
he has begun developing Web applications using ASP. He lives in Dallas with his
wife and son, where he hopes that the Stars can finish better than they started. top Fredric
Laurentine www.laurentine.com Fredric
Laurentine works with organizations of all sizes leading groups of people through
laughter and ideas to a creative, more human future. top Pat
McGee Pat McGee has programmed for all of his adult life, in many different
languages (including English), and for many different processors, large and small
(including homo sapiens). Pat has written programs to do scientific modeling,
process improvement, fraud detection, computer graphics, business systems, and
embedded control systems, and to break other programs. He has led teams and has
been called the "best boss" and the "worst boss" ever, though
not on the same day or by the same person, yet. top Nate
McNamara www.conquerrsi.com Nate
McNamara held a variety of software engineering roles before he suffered a severe
repetitive strain injury (RSI) that interrupted his career. Fortunately, Nate
is one of a handful of RSI victims who have completely recovered, and he has successfully
resumed all of his pursuits. In addition to performing object-oriented and Web
software development and training in the San Francisco Bay area, Nate now presents
seminars on curing RSI. For more information, visit the Website listed above. top George
Olsen George Olsen, principal of Interaction by Design, has done award-winning
user-experience design, information architecture, and Web development for start-ups,
Hollywood studios, such as Disney, and Fortune 500 companies, including Nestle
and Transamerica. In 1998, he was runner-up for Builder.com's Web Innovator of
the Year award for cofounding The Web Standards Project. He has taught, written,
and spoken at numerous conferences about user-experience design issues. top Mark
Passolt Mark Passolt manages the development of advanced scientific
3D visualization and collaboration software at Schlumberger. The design and visualization
of large technical databases is the thread running through most of his work with
software over the last twenty years. He has a master's degree in Mathematics from
the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Outside of work, Mark enjoys woodworking
and dabbles in metalworking and stained glass. top Sue
Petersen www.networkboy.com/suep
Sue Petersen is an anthropologist by training, a programmer by avocation,
and a manager by necessity. She and her husband have owned and operated a small
plumbing repair shop since 1979. Sue started programming in 1985, when
she bought her first PC for the business. Unable to find a simple database for
the business, she created one herself. She started writing professionally in 1995,
when she sold her first article to Windows Tech Journal. She wrote a regular book
review column for Visual Developer Magazine for many years, and currently freelances
for other publications as well. Sue's main professional interests are database
design, and software engineering and management. She is currently programming
in a Win32/Delphi environment. top Dwayne
Phillips Dwayne Phillips has been a systems and computer engineer with
the U.S. government since 1980. He has written articles for magazines such as
The C/C++ Users Journal and The Cutter IT Journal, and is author of The Software
Project Manager's Handbook. A native of Sweetwater, Louisiana, he has a Ph.D.
in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana State University. He resides in Reston,
Virginia, with his wife, Karen, and three sons. top Brian
Richter Brian Richter has been a professional software developer
on Long Island for nineteen years. He started out writing video games, branched
out into character generators and teleprompters, and now writes software for radars
and air traffic control systems. Outside of work, he is an accomplished composer,
pianist, and musician who performs in and directs musical events and shows on
Long Island. top Sharon
Marsh Roberts Sharon Marsh Roberts works primarily with large corporations
on financial systems projects. She originally worked on managing financial analysis
and reporting, but she discovered the challenge of designing and implementing
systems. Sharon is currently helping launch a multi-organizational, multidisciplinary
team at Pfizer to comply with a new FDA Rule, Financial Disclosure by Investigators.
She is focused on the business processes of capturing disclosures from investigators
and communicating status to both investigators and drug teams. Sharon is
president of Roberts Financial Systems, Inc. Her firm specializes in systems in
financial analysis, operations, and management information. She designed and managed
the implementation of a managed healthcare system for one of the nation's largest
insurers. Her role is usually designer or facilitator. A recent successful project
was the on-time delivery of a human resources system that began late. Her current
projects have been impact analyses of Y2K issues and of other problems in the
pharmaceutical industry. As former chairman of the Independent Computer
Consultants Association, her goal is to improve project expertise. She seeks to
creatively blend the resources of corporations and their contractual partners
to meet business needs. Sharon received an M.B.A. from New York University
in 1982 and an Advanced Professional Certificate from the same institution in
1985. Her bachelor's degree, from Bucknell University, is in Education and German.
She is a C.P.A. and a member of the AICPA and the NYSSCPA. Roberts Financial
Systems, Inc., in Linden, New Jersey, serves clients across the U.S. and can be
reached at (908) 862-4726. top Brett
Schuchert Brett Schuchert's most recent work has dealt with software
architecture and with forming the chaos at the beginning of a project. He is a
teacher, mentor, and consultant. On and off since 1985, Brett has taught
courses on subjects ranging from computer literacy to the formal analysis and
design of software systems. He has also served as architect, technical lead, and
individual contributor on several projects in several domains. top Stuart
Scott Stuart Scott is a principal consultant with Cambridge Technology
Partners, where he helps teams design and carry out business transformation programs.
He is based in New York City. top Dave
W. Smith Dave W. Smith has been taking on ambitious, and sometimes
desperate, projects in Silicon Valley start-ups for the past twenty years. In
his spare time, Dave tries to catch up on his e-mail. top Steve
Smith Steve Smith works at the intersection of people, management,
and systems, helping organizations to become more productive. Although
most of Steve's career has been technical -- starting in 1975 as a systems programmer
-- over the years, his context has widened. Today, Steve tackles the most difficult
problem businesses face -- managing technical people so they achieve results rather
than merely justify and deploy the latest technology. Steve is a consultant,
author, speaker, and expert facilitator and coach who honors and enhances the
wisdom that lies dormant in groups. Steve works as a technical architect for EMC,
a manufacturer of intelligent storage systems, software, and services. top Daniel
Starr Daniel Starr still dresses in ways that put people into chaos
(these days, he's often seen in kilts, as befits his Irish ancestry). After some
twenty-six years in the corporate world, during which he evolved from software
developer to software architect, system architect, system architecture process
architect, and generalist-reviewer-opinion-generator, finally reaching the position
of Consulting Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories, he's moving into
writing and independent consulting. In addition to his work in system architecture,
process, reviews, and retrospectives, he's writing a vast, sprawling novel about
time travel and hair spray. top Wayne
Strider Cofounder and vice president of Strider & Cline, Inc.,
an IT management consulting firm based in Kansas City, Missouri, Wayne's IT career
spans twenty-seven years. He conducts project reviews, project retrospectives,
and organizational assessments for information technology organizations. Wayne
and his partner, Eileen Strider, annually cohost their successful Leaders' Forum. top Peter
TerMaat Pete is the founder and sole employee of the Minneapolis consulting
firm Up to Code, Inc., where he hopes someday to win "Employee of the Month."
He enjoys the quest for quality software, whether playing the role of developer,
tester, manager, writer, trainer, or consultant. After more than fifteen years
in the world of software, he still finds it all so exciting he sometimes forgets
to eat lunch. top Phil
Trice Born on Davis Island in Tampa Bay, nurtured among the brackish
lagoons, saw palmetto woods of Florida through mystical awakening in New York
City and maturing in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Philip has been an originary
explorer bridging ways of ancient and modern teachings, arts and engineering,
mystical and physical, and natural and technological. From a varied life path
-- seeker, martial artist, designer, healer, systems architect, entrepreneur --
from seeking access to the magic of life to a deep journey through his own shadow
and light -- Thunder Panther now explores shamanic ways of Lover, Warrior, and
Magician, weaving the Métis ways of his path of heart among the forests
and waters of Northern Idaho. Thunder Panther has founded NW Originary
Arts to assist businesses and individuals through projects, consulting, workshops,
and intensives; to balance the aspects of story, substance, concept, passion,
and value; and to bridge the artificial and natural realms, to co-venture with
Earth and Spirit in artful business, coevolving natural law and value. He can
be reached at ThunderPanther@nworiginaryarts.org. top Bill
Trierweiler Bill Trierweiler has spent the last thirty years looking
for those moments that offer the possibilities for congruent leadership. It has
taken him from the peace movement to tenant organizing to union building to community
development to software development to systems change. He left Community Organizing
and Family Issues (COFI) to found the Five Freedoms Center for Congruent Leadership.
He can be reached at btree@interaccess.com. top Marianne
Tromp Marianne has been involved in scientific software development
since 1982. In 2001, Marianne started a Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN)
in Madison, Wisconsin. Marianne especially enjoys providing software engineers
with tools, guidelines, processes, and coaching, to free them to do the work they
most enjoy doing. top Gerald
M. Weinberg www.geraldmweinberg.com Jerry
Weinberg has worked on transforming software organizations for more than forty
years. He is author, coauthor, or editor of scores of articles and books that
cover all phases of software development. Innovative as a systems thinker, Jerry's
classic works include Are Your Lights On?, The Psychology of Computer Programming,
and An Introduction to General Systems Thinking. Jerry's books on phases
of the software life cycle include Exploring Requirements, Rethinking Systems
Analysis and Design, The Handbook of Walkthroughs, Inspections, and Technical
Reviews, and General Principles of Systems Design. His books on leadership
include Amplifying Your Effectiveness, Becoming a Technical Leader, The Secrets
of Consulting, More Secrets of Consulting, and the Quality Software Management
four-volume series. To many, Jerry is as well-known for his workshops for
software leaders as he is for his books. Workshops include Problem Solving Leadership
(PSL), the Congruent Organizational Change-Shop, and Systems Effectiveness Management
(SEM). He is also a cofounder of the AYE Conference. top Kay
Wise TheWiseChoice.com Kay
A. Wise, president of TheWiseChoice.com, has more than thirty years of leadership
in business and technology, including years as software engineer, database administrator,
entrepreneur, project manager, and program director. Kay now works full-time as
a consultant, speaker, writer, and teacher, emphasizing the politics and practical
issues of launching and steering change projects in technology-intensive environments.
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