Ah. Well... I attended Juilliard... I'm a graduate of the Harvard business school. I travel quite extensively. I lived through the Black Plague and had a pretty good time during that. I've seen the exorcist about a hundred and sixty-seven times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it... not to mention the fact that you're talking to a dead guy... now what do you think? You think I'm qualified?

Biographical Notes

From time to time, people ask me for some biographical information. Here are a few choices. I’ll update from time to time if I need a new one.

If you need bio info on me, feel free to use this material. I’d appreciate an email letting me know what you’re up to. Thanks!

Somewhat Serious, if you must

Ron Jeffries is one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto, coached the first Extreme Programming team and is a Certified Scrum Trainer. He is the owner/operator of two of Agile’s most prolific web sites, RonJeffries.com and XProgramming.com. His most recent book is The Nature of Software Development, released early in 2015. He is an outspoken supporter of technical improvement and excellence in Agile Software Development. Despite his sometimes gruff demeanor he is often thought to be a teddy bear at heart. We can neither confirm nor deny this belief.

My Personal Favorite

Ron Jeffries has been developing software longer than most people have been alive. He holds advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science, both earned before negative integers had been invented. His teams have built operating systems, compilers, relational database systems, and a large range of applications. Ron’s software products have produced revenue of over half a billion dollars, and he wonders why he didn’t get any of it.

Or Perhaps This ...

Ron Jeffries is author of Extreme Programming Adventures in C#, the senior author of Extreme Programming Installed, and was the on-site XP coach for the original Extreme Programming project. Ron has been involved with Extreme Programming for over five years, presenting numerous talks and publishing papers on the topic. He is the proprietor of www.XProgramming.com, a well-known source of XP information. Ron was one of the creators, and a featured instructor in Object Mentor’s popular XP Immersion course. He is a well-known independent consultant in XP and Agile methods.

Ron has advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science, and has been a systems developer for more years than most of you have been alive. His teams have built operating systems, compilers, relational database systems, and a large range of applications. Ron’s software products have produced revenue of over half a billion dollars, and he wonders why he didn’t get any of it.

Somewhat More Serious

I was the on-site coach on the very first XP project, starting in 1996. I’m the senior author of Extreme Programming Installed, the second XP book after Beck’s white one. I’m the author of /Extreme Programming Adventures in C#/, and the proprietor of www.XProgramming.com, one of the longest-running and certainly the largest one-person site on XP, comprising over 200 articles at this time.

I’m probably the most prolific web author in the Agile software space, on news groups and mailing lists. I’m a frequent speaker and trainer at Agile software development conferences, including attending and speaking all of those conferences in the US and some of the ones in Europe. I’m one of the 17 original authors and signatories of the Agile Manifesto (https://www.agilemanifesto.org).

I hold Masters’ degrees in Mathematics and Computer & Communication Science, and I wrote my first computer program in FORTRAN for the IBM 704 at Strategic Air Command Headquarters (Omaha) in 1961.

A Quote

"My teams and I have implemented software products earning over half a billion dollars in revenue, including commercial software in assembler, FORTRAN, Pascal, C, C++, and Smalltalk. [[I wonder why I didn't get any of the money.]] I've also done substantial non-commercial development in LISP, Forth, and probably half a dozen other languages. I've implemented commercial operating systems, compilers, relational and set-theoretic database systems, and a wide range of applications. I have degrees in Mathematics and in Computer and Communication Science. All this experience comes at a price: I absolutely never get carded when I order a glass of beer. I was fortunate enough to get involved with Extreme Programming at the beginning, and I've been doing nothing but helping people with it ever since. Looking back over all my successful (and not so successful) projects, I'd apply XP techniques to all of them were I to do them over." --RonJeffries

Acknowledgement

The precis quote above is from the delightful movie Beetlejuice, starring Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, and Winona Ryder. It’s not really about me.