Bruce F. Webster is an American academic and software engineer. He is a principal at Bruce F. Webster & Associates and an adjunct professor in computer science at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

Early life and education

Webster received a full

National Merit Scholarship The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships. The program is managed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded not-for-profit ...

to study computer science at

, graduating in 1978 with a bachelor's degree. He went on to work in computer science at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in Houston, Texas.

Career

Webster has written over 150 articles on the

computer industry A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', ...

and

software development Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

. He has also written four books on

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

(IT) issues, including ''The NeXT book'', ''Pitfalls of Object-Oriented Development'', ''The Art of ‘Ware'', and ''The Y2K Survival Guide'', and contributed to two others. He authored

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

' 2000

white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...

, ''Patterns in IT Litigation: System Failure''. He also wrote for two years as an IT management columnist for '' Baseline''. In the 1980s, Webster wrote articles and columns for ''

BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...

'' and ''

Macworld ''Macworld'' is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG. History ''Macworld'' was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fl ...

'', and taught computer science at

. In the 1990s, he went on to help found another software startup, Pages Software Inc., where he served as Chief Technical Officer and chief software architect for five years. He then served as Chief Technical Officer at Object Systems Group (now OSG), reviewing troubled corporate IT projects, and subsequently worked as a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers (ibid). He has run his own consulting firm since 2001. Since 2017 he has also served as an adjunct professor for the BYU Computer Science Department, teaching a senior-level class on real-world software engineering. Webster was co-designer and principal

programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

of the original

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

version of ''SunDog: Frozen Legacy'', a real-time space trading and combat game released in 1984. SunDog was cited in late 2022 by Todd Howard of Bethesda Game Studios as one of his inspirations for their forthcoming science-fiction

open world In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the Gamer, player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include ''The Legend of Zelda (video game ...

game ''Starfield''. In a 2008 article, Webster has coined the term "dead sea effect", a situation where tech organizations lose their best talents and as a result end up with a large number of less capable employees. In a 2024 comment, he mentions

Annapurna Interactive Annapurna Games, LLC (trade name: Annapurna Interactive) is an American video game publisher and developer. The company is a division of Annapurna Pictures, and was founded in 2016, and has focused on publishing innovative and emotive indie games ...

's mass resignation as the "most extreme case of the Dead Sea effect" he has come across.

Personal life

Webster currently resides in

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

, with his wife Sandra. He has been a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

since 1967 and has played an active role in the church.

References

External links

Bruce Webster's web site

Bruce Webster's "And Still I Persist" blog

Bruce Webster's "Adventures in Mormonism" blog

Webster & Associates web site

The SunDog Resurrection project
at

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service founded by Geoffrey B. Jeffery, Tim Perdue, and Drew Streib in November 1999. SourceForge provides a centralized software discovery platform, including an online platform for managing and hosting open-source soft ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Bruce Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American computer scientists American Latter Day Saints Brigham Young University alumni Brigham Young University faculty University of Houston–Clear Lake alumni People from Parker, Colorado Engineers from Colorado