Author Archives: Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

This blog has moved

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

My old blog and contents have been converted to wordpress. You can find this new blog at wirfs-brock.com/blog. I find that tagging and categorizing are a good way to organize my blog writings and like the features that wordpress offers. … Continue reading →

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Draw a Tree

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

I often use a short, icebreaker to introduce design storytelling in talks and classes. I hand out an index card and ask people to draw a tree in 60 seconds. I’ve adapted this from Thiagi’s 99 second Draw a Tree … Continue reading →

Posted in Software Design, Teaching techniques | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Design For Test

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

It sounds straightforward. Write your test code first, then write code to pass that test. Don’t write an inch of code without writing a test first. That is what test-driven development (TDD) is about: Use tests to drive out the … Continue reading →

Posted in Software Design, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Value of Design Documentation

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

Recently I asked students to tell me what kinds of requirements they start with and what (if any) design documents do they produce. Several students said that they produced documentation just because it was part of their development process. As … Continue reading →

Posted in Software Architecture, Software Design | Tagged | 2 Comments

Sustainable Design

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

In my most recent IEEE Column, Creating Sustainable Designs, I explore what it means to create software that can be maintained without too many growing pains. I have been intrigued by Christopher Alexander’s writings, particularly the first two volumes of … Continue reading →

Posted in Half-baked Ideas, Software Design | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Open Spaces aren’t for everyone

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

I just moderated the comments for my blog and found yet another comment on my posting about Agile Open Northwest 2008 from an anonymous poster about how crappy an experience Agile Open Northwest 2009 was for him (or her). The … Continue reading →

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What Drives Design?

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

Last fall, I gave a keynote at OOPSLA titled What Drives Design? You can view my presentation, thanks to a podcast recorded by InfoQ. I was slightly chagrined to read the one comment on the site: Funny, I thought that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Three in a Row

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

I just got home from a 3-in-a-row conference marathon. First I went to the Patterns of Programming Language Conference, or PLoP in Nashville, where  our paper Dynamic Factory, co-authored with Leon Welicki and Joe Yoder, was shepherded in a writers’ … Continue reading →

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Software Design and Development is Fun???!

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

A twitter between my daughter and a friend: @jordanwb Are you related to Rebecca Wirfs-Brock? Her name was mentioned in my Software Design and Development class. This class isn’t any fun. @thismax that’s my mom! I’ll let her know you … Continue reading →

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Design Hygiene

Posted on August 20, 2008 by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

Without ongoing attention to design hygiene, design integrity is bound to deteriorate over time. My latest IEEE design column, Enabling Change, briefly examines what it takes to keep a code base ready to absorb new design changes. At the very … Continue reading →

Posted in Software Design | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments