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Edward Nash Yourdon (April 30, 1944 – January 20, 2016) was an American
software engineer Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...
, computer consultant, author and lecturer, and
software engineering methodology In software engineering, a software development process is a process of dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve design, product management. It is also known as a software devel ...
pioneer. He was one of the lead developers of the structured analysis techniques of the 1970s and a co-developer of both the Yourdon/Whitehead method for
object-oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of " objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of p ...
analysis/design in the late 1980s and the Coad/Yourdon methodology for object-oriented analysis/design in the 1990s.


Biography

Yourdon obtained his
B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in
applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemati ...
from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT) in 1965, and did graduate work in electrical engineering and
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 ...
at MIT and the
Polytechnic Institute of New York The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...
. In 1964 Yourdon started working at
Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...
developing FORTRAN programs for the
PDP-5 The PDP-5 was Digital Equipment Corporation's first 12-bit computer, introduced in 1963. History An earlier 12-bit computer, named LINC has been described as the first minicomputer and also "the first modern personal computer." It had 2,048 12- ...
minicomputer and later
assembler Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of ...
for the
PDP-8 The PDP-8 is a 12-bit minicomputer that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units being sold over the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pioneer ...
. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he worked at a small consulting firm and as an independent consultant. In 1974 Yourdon founded his own consulting firm, YOURDON Inc., to provide educational, publishing, and consulting services. After he sold this firm in 1986 he served on the Board of multiple IT consultancy corporations and was advisor on several research project in the software industry throughout the 1990s. In June 1997, Yourdon was inducted into the Computer Hall of Fame, along with such notables as Charles Babbage, James Martin,
Grace Hopper Grace Brewster Hopper (; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of compu ...
, and Gerald Weinberg. In December 1999 ''Crosstalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering'' named him one of the ten most influential people in the software field. In the late 1990s, Yourdon became the center of controversy over his beliefs that
Y2K The year 2000 problem, also known as the Y2K problem, Y2K scare, millennium bug, Y2K bug, Y2K glitch, Y2K error, or simply Y2K refers to potential computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after ...
-related computer problems could result in severe software failures that would culminate in widespread social collapse. Due to the efforts of Yourdon and thousands of dedicated technologists, developers and project managers, these potential critical system failure points were successfully remediated, thus avoiding the problems Yourdon and others identified early enough to make a difference. In the new millennium, Yourdon became Faculty Fellow at the Information Systems Research Center of the
University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School, ...
as well as Fellow of the Business Technology Trends Council for the Cutter Consortium, where he also was editor of the Cutter IT Journal.


Work

After developing structured analysis techniques of the 1970s, and
object-oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of " objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of p ...
analysis/design in the late 1980s and 1990s, in the new millennium Yourdon specialized in
project management Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...
, software engineering methodologies, and
Web 2.0 Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
development. He also founded and published American Programmer magazine (now titled ''Cutter IT Journal''). He is the author of the book '' Decline and Fall of the American Programmer''.


Yourdon Inc.

In 1974, Yourdon founded the consulting firm Yourdon Inc. in New York, which provided consulting, educational and publishing in the field of
software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...
. In the early 1980s, the company had multiple offices in North America and Europe and a staff of 150 people. They trained over 250,000 people in the topics of structured programming, structured design, structured analysis, logical data modeling and project management. In 1986, Yourdon sold the consulting company. It later became part of the Canadian (Québec) software company CGI Informatique. The publishing division had published over 150 books on software engineering topics before it became part of Prentice Hall.


Yourdon structured method

In the 1980s Yourdon developed the Yourdon structured method (YSM) in SSADM based on the functional structuring. The method supports two distinct design phases: analysis and design. YSM includes three discrete steps: the feasibility study; essential modeling; and implementation modeling. It offers a series of models: * The behavioral model: states that system behavior can be described in three ways: functions, dynamics and relationships. * The processor environment model (PEM): describes the allocation of computing functions in processor hardware. * The software environment model (SEM): defines the software architecture and its effects from each processor. * The code organizational model (COM): shows the modular structure of each task The Yourdon structured method (YSM) and
structured analysis and design technique Structured analysis and design technique (SADT) is a systems engineering and software engineering methodology for describing systems as a hierarchy of functions. SADT is a structured analysis modelling language, which uses two types of diagrams: ...
(SADT) are examples of
structured design In software engineering, structured analysis (SA) and structured design (SD) are methods for analyzing business requirements and developing specifications for converting practices into computer programs, hardware configurations, and related manual ...
methods.


Year 2000 (Y2K) problem

During the late 1990s, he was one of the leading proponents of the theory that the ' Y2K bug' could 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 ''Time Bomb 2000'' (), and produced at least one video putting forth that theory (and offering advice on how to survive the coming crisis). Yourdon was criticized by some when his predictions (vigorously refuted by some experts in advance) failed to materialize at the scale predicted. This may have caused him to lose credibility with some in the software industry.


Final years and death

In his final years, Yourdon served as an internationally recognized expert witness and computer consultant specializing in project management, software engineering methodologies, and Web 2.0 development. He died on January 20, 2016, as a result of a post-surgical blood infection.


Personal life

Yourdon was married to Toni Nash. He had three children; daughter Jennifer, and sons Jamie and David. He also had five grandchildren; Liam Christopher, Owen Edward, Edward Roland ("Teddy"), Elliot Ann, and Khalil Slice. Yourdon had five sisters; Toni, Teri, Tina, Aleda, and Patrice. Yourdon was also an avid photographer whose photos were published in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
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'', ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
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Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...
'', ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'', ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
''/
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, ''
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'', ''
New York magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...
'', ''
Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
'', and the '' Huffington Post''.Ed Yourdon's Flickr
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Publications

Yourdon authored over 550 technical articles and authored or coauthored 26 computer books since 1967. A selection: * 1967. ''Real-Time Systems Design''. Information & Systems Press. * 1972. ''Design of On-Line Computer Systems''. Prentice Hall. * * 1975. ''Techniques of Program Structure and Design''. Prentice Hall. * 1976. ''Learning to Program in Structured COBOL, Part I and II''. With C. Gane and T. Sarson and T. Lister. Prentice Hall. * 1978. ''Learning to Program in Structured COBOL, Part II''. With Timothy Lister. Prentice Hall. * 1979. ''Classics in Software Engineering ''. Prentice Hall. * 1982. ''Writings of the Revolution''. Prentice Hall. * 1988. ''Managing the System Life Cycle''. 2nd ed. Prentice Hall. * 1989. ''Modern Structured Analysis''. Prentice Hall. * 1992. '' Decline and Fall of the American Programmer''. Prentice Hall. * 1994. ''Object-Oriented Systems Development: An Integrated Approach''. Prentice Hall. * 1996. ''Case Studies in Object-Oriented Analysis and Design''. With Carl Argila. Prentice-Hall. * 1996. '' Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer''. Prentice-Hall. * 1997. ''Death March: The Complete Software Developer's Guide to Surviving "Mission Impossible" Projects''. Prentice Hall. * 1999. ''The Complete Y2K Home Preparation Guide''. With Robert Roskind. Prentice Hall. * 1999. ''Time Bomb 2000: What the Y2K Computer Crisis means for you!'. With Jennifer Yourdon. Prentice Hall. * 1999. ''The Y2K Financial Survival Guide''. With Jennifer Yourdon and Peter G. Gordon. Prentice Hall. * 2001. ''Managing High-Intensity Internet Projects''. Prentice Hall * 2002. ''Byte Wars: The Impact of September 11 on Information Technology''. Prentice Hall * 2003. ''Death March (2nd edition)''. Prentice Hall * 2004. ''Outsourcing: Competing in the Global Productivity Race''. Prentice Hall


References


External links

*
Structured Analysis Wiki

Ed Yourdon at Flickr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yourdon, Edward 1944 births 2016 deaths American computer programmers American technology writers Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Software engineering researchers