James O. Coplien, also known as Cope, is a writer, lecturer, and researcher in the field of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

. He held the 2003–4 Vloeberghs Leerstoel (Vloeberghs Chair) at

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish government. listof all ...

and has been a visiting professor at

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

. He is known for his involvement in founding the pattern movement as part of the Hillside Group, organizing events in the

Pattern Languages of Programs Pattern Languages of Programs is the name of a group of annual conferences sponsored by The Hillside Group. The purpose of these conferences is to develop and refine the art of software design patterns. Most of the effort focuses on developing ...

conference series, and his writings on

software design pattern In software engineering, a software design pattern is a general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem within a given context in software design. It is not a finished design that can be transformed directly into source or machine co ...

s and organizational patterns.

Career

His ongoing work with Liping Zhao includes a monograph entitled "A Generalized Formal Design Theory" which explores the foundations of symmetry and symmetry-breaking in design in general, and in patterns in particular. Cope was a founding Member of Hillside Group with

Kent Beck Kent Beck (born 1961) is an American software engineer and the creator of extreme programming, a software development methodology that eschews rigid formal specification for a collaborative and iterative design process. Beck was one of the 17 ...

Grady Booch Grady Booch (born February 27, 1955) is an American software engineer, best known for developing the Unified Modeling Language (UML) with Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh. He is recognized internationally for his innovative work in software archi ...

, Ward Cunningham, Ralph Johnson,

Ken Auer Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in t ...

and Hal Hildebrand. He has started up several of the conferences in the

(PLoP) conference series and is a longstanding pattern author and PLoP shepherd. His pattern form, the "Coplien Form,"http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?CoplienForm is a simplified way to structure a pattern in preparation for writing a more literate version in Alexandrian form. Together with Trygve Reenskaug, he was a principal in the design of the

data, context and interaction Data, context, and interaction (DCI) is a paradigm used in computer software to program systems of communicating objects. Its goals are: * To improve the readability of object-oriented code by giving system behavior first-class status; * To cleanly ...

(DCI) paradigm. He was also Program Chair of Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages & Applications conference (

OOPSLA OOPSLA (Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages & Applications) is an annual ACM research conference. OOPSLA mainly takes place in the United States, while the sister conference of OOPSLA, ECOOP, is typically held in Europe. It is opera ...

) in 1996, and has been a co-founder and sometime chair of many software pattern conferences.

Books

Books he has written, co-written or edited include: * * * * * * *

Research

His early work on C++ idioms was one of the three primary sources of the popular '' Design Patterns''. He also named the

curiously recurring template pattern The curiously recurring template pattern (CRTP) is an idiom, originally in C++, in which a class X derives from a class template instantiation using X itself as a template argument. More generally it is known as F-bound polymorphism, and it is a ...

C++ idiom. His work on organizational patterns was an inspiration for both

extreme programming Extreme programming (XP) is a software development methodology intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. As a type of agile software development,"Human Centred Technology Workshop 2006 ", 2006, P ...

and for

Scrum Scrum may refer to: Sport * Scrum (rugby), a method of restarting play in rugby union and rugby league ** Scrum (rugby union), scrum in rugby union * Scrum, an offensive melee formation in Japanese game Bo-taoshi Media and popular culture * M ...

daily standups. In ''Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development'' book he co-presented an alternative version of

Conway's law Conway's law is an adage that states organizations design systems that mirror their own communication structure. It is named after the computer programmer Melvin Conway, who introduced the idea in 1967. His original wording was: The law is bas ...

Presenter

Coplien has presented several times in the UK at the ACCU conference:
ACCU2010 Lean Architecture and Agile Software Development

ACCU2008 Five practical solutions to Agile myths

ACCU2008 Organizational Patterns: The Foundations of Agile

ACCU2007 A balanced Agile design approach
He has given several conference keynotes, such a
"Reflections on Reflection"
at SPLASH 2013
"Kaizen and Certification"
at the 2013 Scrum Alliance Regional Conference in Tokyo, an

at the AOSD Conference in Berlin in 2012.

References

* * Fraser, Steven, Kent Beck, Bill Caputo, Tim Mackinnon, James Newkirk and Charlie Pool. "Test Driven Development (TDD)." In M. Marchesi and G. Succi, eds., XP 2003, LNCS 2675, pp. 459–462, 2003. ©Springer-Verlag, Berlin and Heidelberg, 2003. * Sutherland, Jeff. Origins of Scrum. Web page . 5 July 2007. * Library of Congress, Coplien, James O. . 19 September 2019. * *

External links

Jim's Homepage

Jim's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coplien, Jim British non-fiction writers British computer scientists Living people British male writers Computer scientists Year of birth missing (living people) Male non-fiction writers