OTUG October 2003 Meeting

Synopsis

Gearworks adopted agile software development processes about 16 months ago as a way of enabling its business to be more responsive to the emerging market of Field Service Automation. Centered on the principles of Scrum and XP, Gearworks has 20 people involved in its implementation of agile. By using a project backlog, story cards, daily stand-up meetings, two-week iterations, test first development, paired programming, continuous refactoring and constant tuning of its overall process, Gearworks has leveraged agile development to be responsive to customer requests and competitive pressures.

Chris Heim and David Hemphill (Product Manager and Lead Architect) will lead a discussion in how/why Gearworks quickly transitioned its company from traditional software practices to an agile environment. Their presentation will explain how Gearworks is using agile, the success and challenges they have experienced, and demonstrate examples of its tools and processes.

Gearworks develops mobile applications that improve business at the point of delivery - the critical "last mile" of the supply chain where dispatched mobile workers deliver goods or services to customers. Its product suite is called etrace, which is comprised of three primary components:

1. Electronic Clipboard is wireless software that operates on handheld computers, such as PDAs and java-enabled cell phones.
2. Mission Control is a web-based application that is used by office personnel for dispatching and monitoring business activity in the field.
3. QuickConnect is middleware software that seamlessly integrates a customer's internal operational systems with etrace to transport business data between the two environments.

Speakers:

Chris Heim is the Product Manager at Gearworks. He has over 10 years of experience in project management and business development, primarily focused on the transportation, logistics and field service industries.

David Hemphill is the Lead Architect and Development Manager for Gearworks. He has over 12 years of experience in software development and is the co-author of Java 2 Micro Edition from Manning Publications.