Peopleware Papers: Notes on the Human Side of Software, The

Chapter 23. Shapes to Come

Is CASE dead? Various among the pontiffs of programming have declared the death, but for every mourner there is an optimistic resurrectionist, for every detractor, a jubilant convert. Guided by this zeitgeist, in 1994 the Australian Computer Society assembled in Melbourne two stellar teams of Aussie consultants and practitioners led by supporter Graeme Simsion and skeptic Rob Thomsett. “The great CASE debate,” as it was styled, argued the pros and cons of the question “Is there a case for CASE in Australia?” The debate proved to be a big event for the Victorian ACS, outdrawing the book launching by a former prime minister held in the same hall earlier that day. For reasons unknown, I had been recruited to round out the ...