56 Structuring Object-Oriented Software Development Project Teams in Support of System Architectures

Waterfront Centre Hotel
Cheakamus Room

Conway's law tells us that the structure of the system is strongly influenced by the organizational structure of the team that builds it. Proper partitioning of object-oriented systems dictates a well thought out distribution of responsibilities among subsystems. Unfortunately, traditional approaches to team structure do not effectively support the adoption or use of object technology, for they do not adequately address the unique features of well-designed object-oriented system architectures. Upon attending this tutorial, the participant will be able to: describe architectures for object-oriented applications; define how to control growth within teams; define organizational structures and their usefulness in object-oriented projects; design organizational structures that support object-oriented development; determine if mentors or consultants are appropriate for their project; establish roles and responsibilities among team members.

Attendee Background: This tutorial is designed for those individuals responsible for managing an object-oriented project. A participant should understand basic concepts of object technology (e.g., class vs. instance, polymorphism, encapsulation). Prior project management experience is helpful, but not required. Because organizing a team is based on numerous soft and hard factors, participants should also bring an open mind, a willingness to share their successes and failures, and a desire to try something new.

Luke Hohmann is Vice President of Engineering at SmartPatents, Inc. Mr. Hohmann has extensive experience in object-oriented analysis and design, software engineering, user interface design, and project management. He is the author of "Journey of the Software Professional: A Sociology of Software Development" (Prentice Hall). Mr. Hohmann is currently working on two books, "GUIs with Glue: Creating Usability Through Lo-Fi Design" and "Mastering Software Patterns in C++". Mr. Hohmann has a B.S.E. in Computer Engineering and an M.S.E. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan.