Alistair Cockburn

Alistair Cockburn
File:Alistair Cockburn (2007).jpg Alistair Cockburn in Seattle in 2007
Born	19 November
Nationality	American
Occupation	Computer programmer

Alistair Cockburn /ˈælᵻstər ˈkoʊbərn/ (born 19 November) is an American computer scientist, known as one of the initiators of the agile movement in software development.

Life and work

Cockburn obtained his degree in computer science at the Case Western Reserve University. In 2003 he received his PhD degree from the University of Oslo.

Cockburn started his career in the field of communication technology and OO -Software development at IBM operates from 1984 to 1991. He then moved into an advisory role at IBM, in particular the methods of OO software development. From 1994, "Humans and Technology" in Salt Lake City.

Cockburn helped write the Manifesto for Agile Software Development in 2001, the agile PM Declaration of Interdependence in 2005, and co-founded the International Consortium for Agile in 2009 (with Ahmed Sidky and Ash Rofail). He is a principal expositor of the use case for documenting business processes and behavioral requirements for software, and inventor of the Cockburn Scale for categorizing software projects.

The methodologies in the Crystal family (e.g., Crystal Clear), described by Alistair Cockburn, are considered examples of lightweight methodology. The Crystal family is colour-coded to signify the "weight" of methodology needed. Thus, a large project which has consequences that involve risk to human life would use the Crystal Sapphire or Crystal Diamond methods. A small project might use Crystal Clear, Crystal Yellow or Crystal Orange.

Cockburn presented his Hexagonal Architecture 2005 as a solution to problems with e.g. traditional layering, coupling and entanglement.

Selected publications

• Surviving Object-Oriented Projects, Alistair Cockburn, 1st edition, December, 1997, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-201-49834-0.
• Writing Effective Use Cases, Alistair Cockburn, 1st edition, January, 2000, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-201-70225-8.
• Agile Software Development, Alistair Cockburn, 1st edition, December 2001, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-201-69969-9.
• Patterns for Effective Use Cases, Steve Adolph, Paul Bramble, with Alistair Cockburn, Andy Pols contributors, August 2002, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-201-72184-8.
• People and Methodologies in Software Development, Alistair Cockburn, February 2003, D.Ph. dissertation, University of Oslo Press
• Crystal Clear : A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams, Alistair Cockburn, October 2004, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-201-69947-8.
• Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game, Alistair Cockburn, 2nd edition, October 2006, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-321-48275-1, ISBN 978-0-321-48275-4 .

External links

• Home Page of Alistair Cockburn