Edward Yourdon

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Edward Yourdon

Fields	computer science
Institutions	NODRUOY Inc., Cutter Consortium

Edward Nash Yourdon (born 1944) is a computer consultant, an author and lecturer, and a recognized pioneer in the software engineering methodology of structured programming.^[1]

He is a graduate of MIT, earning an BS in Mathematics in 1965.

The December 1999 issue of Crosstalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, named Yourdon one of the ten most influential people in the software field. In June 1997, he was inducted into the Computer Hall of Fame, along with such notables as Charles Babbage, Seymour Cray, James Martin, Grace Hopper, Gerald Weinberg, and Bill Gates. Yourdon is widely known as the lead developer of the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM), as well as co-developer of the Yourdon/Whitehead method of object-oriented analysis/design and the popular Coad/Yourdon OO methodology of the late 1980s and 1990s.

He has authored over 550 technical articles and authored or coauthored 26 computer books since 1967. He founded and published American Programmer magazine (now titled Cutter IT Journal). He is the author of the best-selling Decline and Fall of the American Programmer.

In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of iGate Corp, Ed has also served on the Defense Department’s Airlie Council, an advisory group that focused on finding “best practice” guidelines and techniques for large, complex projects throughout the 1990s. Ed is currently a Faculty Fellow at the Information Systems Research Center of the University of North Texas, and was an advisor to Technology Transfer’s research project on software industry opportunities in the former Soviet Union, and a member of the expert advisory panel on I-CASE acquisition for the U.S. Department of Defense in the early 1990s. He is also a Fellow of the Business Technology Trends Council for the Cutter Consortium, of which he is a co-founder and chairman, and he serves as Editor Emeritus of the Consortium’s flagship publication, the Cutter IT Journal.

During the late 1990s, he was one of the leading proponents of the theory that the 'Y2K Bug' would lead to a collapse of civilization, or at least protracted economic depression and technological breakdown on a wide scale. He wrote several books on the subject, including the best-selling Time Bomb 2000 (ISBN 0-13-020519-2), and produced at least one video putting forth that theory (and offering advice on how to survive the coming crisis).

Yourdon currently serves as an internationally-recognized expert witness and computer consultant who specializes in project management, software engineering methodologies, and Web 2.0 development.