Albert F. Case Jr.

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Albert F. Case Jr. (born March 2, 1955) is an American software engineer and one of the leaders in the development of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technologies and system development methodologies.

Contents

Biography

Case is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo. He began his software development career in 1972 and worked in a variety of IT-related capacities, including director of Management Information Systems for Ryder System and co-founder of Maximus Systems, Inc., developers of the Maximus code generator. In 1982, Case joined start-up Nastec Corporation, a Southfield, Mich. based software development company. In 1989, Case left Nastec Corporation to join Gartner, Inc. (then GartnerGroup), the IT industry research and advisory firm, where he spent the next 13 years as a thought-leading industry analyst, speaker, writer and business executive. After 13 years, Case left Gartner to become an independent consulting executive and entrepreneur, with the goal of applying GST and "organizational engineering" in the laboratory of live businesses.

Case served as a board member for Sky Capital Holdings, a New York-based investment bank; interim president and CEO of DuoCash Corporation, a payment processing services company; and as chairman of the board of eNucleus, Inc [1] (ENUI.OB) a technology-based business process outsourcing firm; and president and CEO of Turbodyne Technologies, Inc. (TRBD.OB). [2]

As an entrepreneur, Case is a co-founder and managing director of firms including content/commerce management software providers InfoTollgate.com [3] (hosted content/commerce management systems) and Turnpike Software, LLC, [4] the content management software development company (with his partner Dr. N. Adam Rin, former Bachman CASE tool and Gartner alumnus). He is also publisher and co-founder of IT procurement advisor TechSpend, LLC [5] (with Gartner alumnus Vinnie Mirchandani). He is also the Research Fellow and principal analyst with ES Research Group, Inc., [6] which specializes in helping companies identify, select, implement and measure sales performance improvement programs.

Work

Case of the leaders in the development of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technologies and system development methodologies. He also was a major contributor to the Spectrum System Development Methodology, from John D. Toellner Associates, developing the Structured Analysis and Structured Design design tips.

Computer-Aided Software Engineering

Nastec Corporation both coined the acronym CASE and launched the DesignAid analysis and design tool and the LifeCycle Manager project configuration and management system. For six years, Case served as Nastec's Vice President for Professional Services and Product Management. Case, and his associate Vaughn Frick developed a second generation structured analysis and design technique based on the Yourdon/Demarco/Constantine Structured Analysis/Structured Design technique. Frick, while working with Case at Nastec Corporation on the development of the PC-based DesignAid product, was the first to specify and teach a comprehensive technique for transforming a structured analysis specification into a structured design.

The professional services division quickly became not only the largest component of Nastec Corporation, but also the largest provider of SA/SD education.[ citation needed ]

Case was among the most prolific public speakers on the subject of CASE during the 1980s, helping launch, among other events, the Computer-Aided Software Engineering Symposium as its keynote speaker for its first two years. Case toured the country, promoting the integration of upper CASE and lower CASE with pro-football great and code-generation pioneer Fran Tarkenton, founder of Tarkenton Software. When Tarkenton Software and Nastec Corporation agreed not to merge, Tarkenton teamed up with James Martin and merged Tarkenton Software into KnowledgeWare, a direct competitor to Nastec.

Principles of Computer Aided Software Engineering

Case, also author of the book Information Systems Development: Principles of Computer Aided Software Engineering (Prentice Hall, 1986), was also a lifelong student of general systems theory (GST) and fascinated by the application of structured analysis and design techniques to the design of entire business operations, not just the information technology subsystems.

At Gartner, Case quickly ascended the analyst ranks, going from the leading Software Engineering analyst to head of its business process reengineering practice - where he could spend full-time applying GST to business design, launching Gartner's e-Business Resource Center, its Vertical Industries practices and ultimately becoming the founder, group vice president and general manager of Gartner's TCO Software division. From there, Case became head of Gartner's IT benchmarking business and president of Gartner's eMetrix business performance management business. During his 13-year tenure at Gartner, Case launched dozens of product and service lines that accounted for over $100 million in revenue to Gartner.

Stamford Research

He had a consulting firm Stamford Research, LLC, [7] with Arnold Kwong and Steve Vogel.

Related Research Articles

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Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development involves writing and maintaining the source code, but in a broader sense, it includes all processes from the conception of the desired software through to the final manifestation of the software, typically in a planned and structured process. Software development also includes research, new development, prototyping, modification, reuse, re-engineering, maintenance, or any other activities that result in software products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IDEF</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Systems development life cycle</span> Systems engineering term

In systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, the systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life-cycle, is a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information system. The systems development life cycle concept applies to a range of hardware and software configurations, as a system can be composed of hardware only, software only, or a combination of both. There are usually six stages in this cycle: requirement analysis, design, development and testing, implementation, documentation, and evaluation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Product lifecycle</span> Duration of processing of products from inception, to engineering, design & manufacture

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer-aided software engineering</span>

Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) is the domain of software tools used to design and implement applications. CASE tools are similar to and were partly inspired by Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools used for designing hardware products. CASE tools were used for developing high-quality, defect-free, and maintainable software. CASE software is often associated with methods for the development of information systems together with automated tools that can be used in the software development process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Yourdon</span> American software engineer and pioneer in the software engineering methodology

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Martin (author)</span> British information technology consultant and writer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Structured analysis and design technique</span>

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Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain of manufacturing design and production. The design process is inherently a knowledge-intensive activity, so a great deal of the emphasis for KBE is on the use of knowledge-based technology to support computer-aided design (CAD) however knowledge-based techniques can be applied to the entire product lifecycle.

Performance engineering encompasses the techniques applied during a systems development life cycle to ensure the non-functional requirements for performance will be met. It may be alternatively referred to as systems performance engineering within systems engineering, and software performance engineering or application performance engineering within software engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Constantine</span> American software engineer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Structured analysis</span>

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 procedures.

Gideon I. Gartner was an American businessman, serial entrepreneur, educator and philanthropist. Often referred to as the father of the modern analyst industry, he is best known as the founder of Gartner, Inc. a Stamford, Connecticut information technology (IT) research and advisory company.

An integrated workplace management system (IWMS) is a software platform that supports organizations in managing the use of workplace resources, including the management of a company's real estate portfolio, infrastructure and facilities assets. IWMS solutions are commonly packaged as an integrated suite or as individual modules that can be scaled over time. They are used by corporate occupiers, real estate services firms, facilities services providers, landlords and managing agents. Traditionally focused on supporting real estate and facilities professionals, IWMS solutions are becoming more employee-centric, expanding their touchpoints to include all building occupants and visitors.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Function model</span>

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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 development life cycle (SDLC). The methodology may include the pre-definition of specific deliverables and artifacts that are created and completed by a project team to develop or maintain an application.

References

  1. eNucleus Enucleus.com
  2. Turbodyne Technologies, Inc.
  3. "InfoTollgate.com". Archived from the original on 2006-08-28. Retrieved 2006-09-03.
  4. "Turnpike Software, LLC". Archived from the original on April 8, 2006. Retrieved 2017-04-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. TechSpend, LLC
  6. ES Research Group, Inc.
  7. "Stamford Research, LLC". Archived from the original on 2008-02-08. Retrieved 2006-08-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

Further reading