Tom DeMarco

Updated: 11/16/2019 by Computer Hope
Tom DeMarco

Name: Tom DeMarco

Born: August 20, 1940, in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, USA

Computer-related contributions

  • American author, teacher, software engineer and speaker on software engineering topics.
  • Early creator of structured analysis in the 1980s.
  • Worked on the ESS-1 project to develop the first large scale Electronic Switching System while employed with Bell Labs, which were installed in telephone offices all over the world.
  • Key interests are project management, change facilitation, and litigation of software-intensive contracts.
  • Member of the ACM.
  • Fellow and senior consultant of the Cutter Consortium.

Significant publications

  • Software Engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone? (2009).
  • Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior (2008).
  • Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects (2003).
  • Slack, Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency (2001).
  • The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management (1997).
  • Structured Analysis and System Specification (1979).

Honors and awards

  • Stevens Award for "contribution to the methods of software development" (1999).
  • Recipient of the Warnier Prize for "lifetime contribution to the field of computing" (1986).
  • Winner of the Jean-Dominique Warnier Prize for "lifetime contribution to the information sciences.
  • Fellow of the IEEE.

Quotes

"It's not what you don't know that kills you, but what you know that isn't so."

Websites