Rebecca Wirfs-Brock

Rebecca Wirfs-Brock invented the way of thinking about objects known as Responsibility-Driven Design. She is lead author of the classic Designing Object-Oriented Software (1990 still in print!), and Object Design: Roles, Responsibilities and Collaborations (2003). She is the design columnist for IEEE Software and past board member of the Agile Alliance. Through her writing, teaching and speaking she popularizes the use of informal techniques and thinking tools for designers, programmers, and analysts. Among her widely-used inventions are object role stereotypes and the conversational form of use cases.

Rebecca is recognized as an innovative and influential design practitioner. She spent 15 years at Tektronix where among other accomplishments were managing the first commercial Smalltalk system, project leader for low cost graphics terminals, and Program Manager of the Reusable Components Group at Tek Labs. Beginning in 1990 she was Director of Consulting and Training for Instantiations, Digitalk, and ParcPlace-Digitalk. In 1997 she founded Wirfs-Brock Associates. Most recently she has taught object design, architecture, and use case writing, and advises clients on design, modeling, and object-technology management in the financial, telecommunications, and government sectors.