I just heard that Ed Yourdon died.
In ’93 or early ’94, I got a strange email from him. He had heard about me in Mexico and he wanted to meet. I had never been to Mexico and I had never met or spoken to Ed. I was shocked: One of the most famous people in the software development methodology world wanted to talk to me, a test manager in Silicon Valley who had almost no writing and had spoken at only one conference! This was the very first time I realized that I had begun to build a reputation in the industry.
Ed was not the first famous guy I had met. I met Boris Beizer at that conference I mentioned, and that did not go well (we yelled at each other… he told me that I was full of shit… that kind of thing). I thought that might be the end of my ambition to rock the testing industry, if the heavy hitters were going to hate me.
Ed was a heavy hitter. I owned many of his books and I had carefully read his work on structured analysis. He was one of my idols.
So we met. We had a nice dinner at the Hyatt in Burlingame, south of San Francisco. He told me I needed to study systems thinking more deeply. He challenged me to write a book and asked me to write articles for American Programmer (later renamed to the Cutter IT Journal).
The thing that got to me was that Ed treated me with respect. He asked me many questions. He encouraged me to debate him. He pushed me to write articles on the CMM and on Good Enough Software– both subjects that got me a lot of favorable attention.
On the day of our meeting, he was 49– the same age I am now. He set me on a path to become a guy like him– because he showed me (as many others would later do, as well) that the great among us are people who help other people aspire to be great, too. I enjoy helping people, but reflecting on how I was helped reminds me that it is not just fun, it’s a moral imperative. If Ed reached out his hand to me, some stranger, how can I not do the same?
Ed saw something in me. Even now I do not want to disappoint him.
Rest in Peace, man.
It is that kind of story that makes working in any industry fun. I honestly hope that at some point in my work life, probably to a much lesser extent, that some one will be influenced for the better by something that I helped them learn, or do.
Thank you for the link, and yeah, I feel the same way about Ed Yourdon. I am hoping you and I can stay in touch. I’ll reach out to you on LinkedIn.
Someday, when I die, write few lines for me (preferably something nice).
Stay in touch until then James.