DaveHoover

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2004 will be my first year at AYE. I was able to attend AYE because a colleague (AlanFrancis) was unable to make it. I work for ThoughtWorks as a software developer and communication facilitator. My self-appointed title at ThoughtWorks is SoftwareTherapist because I am interested in the healing of troubled software and troubled software teams.

In a former career, I was a family therapist.

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I just returned home from AYE 2004 and am still recovering from the experience. Similar to several other significant gatherings in my life, I left AYE with a greater appreciation for the magnitude of the learning that lies ahead of me. But unique to this experience, I left with a (relatively) profound sense of clarity for what I would like to focus on in the years (and decades) ahead, and a better feel for how I might arrive at where I am trying to go ... I'll say more about this in my blog...

Dialogue

Dave, you're going to be in comfortable surroundings, with several family therapists or trained-by-family-therapists around. But you know that. I'm really looking forward to your contributions, as I've been a SoftwareTherapist for almost 50 years. Most of the time, though, I didn't know it. - Jerry Weinberg 2004.10.14

Thanks Jerry. There are several online friends, acquaintences, and colleagues that I am excited about meeting face-to-face for the first time at AYE. Particularly PatrickMorrison, TimBacon, EstherDerby and yourself. --Dave

Dave, I'm looking forward to meeting you as well. I have a request: I've read about PairProgramming, but have barely practiced it. (In the last two years, I've only been sitting next to another programmer for maybe 10-20 days). Would you mind doing a session or two? I've got half-a-dozen projects from work, school and hobby that I could use a bit of help with, or we could just pick some fun example. You have a history of helping me achieveing good intentions. Reading over the CollaborationwithOthers thread made me think of both successes and failures in the knowledgehydrant project, and I'd be happy to participate, with you, in that BOF session. I bet there are useful things we could contribute, and we might even find something new (or old) to collaborate on. PatrickMorrison 2004.10.21

Patrick, I would very much enjoy pairing with you at some point during our time at AYE. It will be an adventure! Let's touch base via email prior to AYE to settle on the details so we can maximize our time together. --Dave

Dave, Patrick, there will be lots of sessions where you'll have the opportunity to pair up with others--definitely in all mine. I'll be interested in sharing what you learn and experience. (and we'll have lots of out-of-session time to discuss it, or do other projects) - JerryWeinberg 2004.10.21

Dave,

I am looking forward to meeting and speaking to you. I remember that you came from a a background in family and child therapy. We communicated briefly early last year via email from the Retrospectives user group. A few of the members of that group will be here at AYE this year. JohnSuzuki 2004.10.21

John, what is it that you look forward to talking about with me?

Yes, my background is in family therapy, you remember correctly. Up until mid-2000, I worked full-time as a child and family therapist (now I'm just part-time [working with my own family and children ;-)]). When I left my former career, I assumed that what I had learned and experienced as a therapist would be irrelavent as a programmer. When I read ThePsychologyOfComputerProgramming, I realized I couldn't have been more wrong. Every software development team I have joined in the last few years has said that they were in need of a therapist. --Dave

Hi Dave,

I am looking forward to speaking to you about how you use your past training in your new career and field. There will be at least one other family therapist (JeanMcLendon) presenting at the conference whom I recommend that you at least meet at AYE and possibly take one of her sessions, if it fits for you. Also a colleague and someone I am having the pleasure working with this year, DianaNewton, will be giving a AYE workshop with Jean on pioneering family therapist, Virginia Satir. Many of the individuals attending the conference as well as many of the members of the Retrospectives Group have been influenced by Virginia's work through Jerry and Jean (plus and many others individuals) as it applies to technical and computer/software organizations.

In my dealings with technical and computer/software organizations I recognize that we need many more software therapists besides Jerry and yourself. By the way Jean and Jerry published a wonderful article in IEEE Software magazine awhile back (I think) about "Beyond Blaming: Congruence in Large Systems Development Projects" that you might be interested in reading. I think the article or version of it was published in the article section of this wiki. Jean also had a wonderful article published in IEEE Software several years ago about "Healing the Organization," of course with a therapist's view of software organizations.

-JohnSuzuki 2004.10.23

Updated: Thursday, November 11, 2004