Raising the Team IQ
through Collaboration

"I bring organizations across departments closer together, by doing real work with them, by increasing trust, reducing fear, and making honest progress. Humans and Technology is my company's name for good reason." --Dr Alistair Cockburn

alistair teaching on gray background
alistair teaching on gray background

Meet Alistair Cockburn

Dr. Alistair Cockburn is internationally recognized for his expertise in Agile methodologies, project management, and object-oriented design.

 

Key Achievements

 

✔️ Named in 2020 as one of the "42 Greatest Software Professionals of All Times."

 

✔️ Voted in 2007 as one of the "All-Time Top 150 i-Technology Heroes."

 

✔️ Co-author of the Agile Manifesto that revolutionized the industry.

Our Courses

Find the courses of most interest to you, write and ask about having that course, or a tailored version of it taught at your company. Currently teaching primarily to orlganizations. Not currently offering public classes.

agile for executives

Leadership and Strategy

90 minutes

16 people

Agile for Executives

Empower leaders to drive Agile transformations with practical strategies.

agile for executives

Software Development

Half day

20 people

Hexagonal Architecture

Empower leaders to drive Agile transformations with practical strategies.

Books that changed the industry

Dr. Alistair Cockburn is internationally recognized for his expertise in Agile methodologies, project management, and object-oriented design.

Consulting

Dr. Alistair Cockburn is internationally recognized for his expertise in Agile methodologies, project management, and object-oriented design.

Alistair's brief history

From pioneering Agile methodologies to influencing global software development, here's a glimpse of Dr. Cockburn's journey.

Early career & IBM Consulting

Dr. Cockburn's journey began in 1993 when he interviewed teams worldwide on "What makes a successful project?" This led him to create an early version of Agile methodologies while working at IBM Consulting.

First Agile Implementation

In 1994, he helped IBM successfully implement his Agile methodology on an $15M Smalltalk project, solidifying Agile as a practical approach to software development.

Success at Central Bank of Norway

Dr. Cockburn helped the Central Bank of Norway successfully deliver a complex mainframe project, which led him to design the Crystal family of methodologies.

Co-author of the Agile Manifesto

Dr. Cockburn was one of the 17 people who co-authored the Agile Manifesto in 2001, revolutionizing the software development and project management industries.

Publishing "Crystal Clear"

In 2003, Dr. Cockburn published "Crystal Clear," outlining his methodology for Agile software development, focusing on communication and collaboration.

Creating the Heart of Agile

In 2015, Dr. Cockburn refined his approach to Agile into four simple imperatives: Collaborate, Deliver, Reflect, Improve - The Heart of Agile.

Alistair's brief history

From pioneering Agile methodologies to influencing global software development, here's a glimpse of Dr. Cockburn's journey.

alistair teaching
alistair teaching

He is the author of two industry-changing books:

 

  • Writing Effective Use Cases, having sold hundreds of thousands of copies, serves as the foundation text in both universities and industry.

 

 

 

A Brief History

 

In 1993, after two years of interviewing teams around the world on "What makes a successful project?", he wrote for the IBM Consulting Group an early version of what we now call an agile methodology. He and IBM used that methodology successfully in 1994 on a 18-month, $15M, fixed-price, fixed scope Smalltalk project, with Alistair as lead consultant and technical coordinator.

 

In 1998 he helped the Central Bank of Norway successfully deliver a difficult mainframe project that merged all the bank-to-bank transactions in the country of Norway. He also designed the Crystal family of methodologies while at the Central Bank of Norway.

 

In 2001, he organized the historic meeting in Snowbird, Utah, in which he and 16 other people from around the world wrote the Agile Manifesto. That manifesto revolutionized the field of software development, and then product management and eventually project management and organizational development in general. The "agile" approach - once considered radical - is now recommended in all industries from startups to government defense contracts, and even to government departments themselves, and social impact projects.

 

He published books in 1997 (Surviving Object-Oriented Projects), 2000 (Writing Effective Use Cases), 2001 (Agile Software Development), 2003 (his PhD dissertation, "People and Methodologies in Software Development), 2004 (Patterns for Effective Use Cases), 2005 (Crystal Clear), 2006 (Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game, 2nd ed.).

 

In 2015, Dr. Cockburn synthesized his advice to just four words: Collaborate, Deliver, Reflect, Improve - what he calls the Heart of Agile. These four words make any initiative more effective and more enjoyable to work on. Dr. Cockburn and his associates at the Heart of Agile Academy apply all the techniques they learn to different project situations.

 

With his background, Dr. Cockburn is one of the few people in the world who can authoritatively relate agile development to the need for executive control, balancing fiduciary responsibility with the need to stay responsive to a changing world. He stays grounded by consulting, teaching and working with project practitioners in all active roles, particularly project managers, product owners, scrum masters, coaches and programmers. This real-problem contact keeps him in tune with the changing work situations.

 

 

Some of Dr. Cockburn's Notable Memes

  • This photo, the "wild hair" picture, is the most widely recognized bio picture, serving as his LinkedIn profile and photo for as many conference lectures as will permit :).

  • Information Radiators is one of Dr. Cockburn's most used phrases, coined during a visit to a company in Chicago in 2000. There have been contests for the best information radiators.
     

  • "A user story is a promise for a conversation", is a phrase he framed in 1998 when visiting the first Extreme Programming project in Detroit. Since expanded by Ron Jeffries to Card, Conversation, Confirmation.
     

  • The Cockburn Scale describes the various sorts of projects you might find yourself on, to highlight that different strategies and methodologies are needed at different time.
     

  • Hexagonal Architecture is a software architecture used to protect domain logic from external technologies and simplify testing.

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