OTUG March 21 2006 Distinguished Lecture

Date:	March 21, 2006 (Third Tuesday)
Time:	5:30 - 7:00 Social hour / Food 7:00 - 10:00 Two-part lecture with break for snacks
Location:	JRC - Room #126 (John R. Roach Center for the Liberal Arts)
Topic:	A Distinguished Lecture by Dave West The Future of IT Professionals (if they have one)
Entrance Fee:	$25.00 (UST Faculty free, all students free)
RSVP:	Please register by Thursday March 16th
PDF:	2006 March - Dave West (PDF:28k)
Slides:	Slides from the presentation (PPT:275k)

Abstract

The Future of IT Professionals (if they have one): Agile, Lean, Adaptive, and Domain-centric methods are putting IT back in the spotlight. Unfortunately, the glare of klieg lights reveals, yet again, the dark core of the profession as well as the sparkly successes at the fringe. The numbers still show that most software projects fail. At the same time that Agility is putting the human developer on center stage management is dismissing the idea of software professionals in favor of the notion of commodity coders. Calls for fundamental change (Agile / Lean in themselves are not fundamental changes) in the profession are increasingly heard. What might the nature of such a fundamental change be? How can it be brought about? Does the profession, and do professionals, have a future? Dave will attempt to limn answers to these questions while exploring the ideas of "better people," the software "calling," community, and upending academia.

About The Speaker

Dave West is a leading educator and trainer in object-oriented software development with extensive experience consulting for Fortune 500 companies. He authored the "Object Thinking" book and cofounded the Object Technology User Group.

Refreshments provided by Advanced Technologies Integration, Inc., www.atico.com.

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