Donald Firesmith

Donald Firesmith
Donald Firesmith in 2006
Born	June 14, 1952 (1952-06-14) (age 59) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Residence	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Citizenship	United States
Nationality	United States
Fields	System engineering, software engineering, Requirements engineering, method engineering, and object-oriented design
Institutions	Software Engineering Institute
Alma mater	Arizona State University
Known for	Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures, Method engineering

Donald G. Firesmith (1952) is an American software engineer, consultant, and trainer at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI).

Biography

Firesmith received his B.A. in Mathematics and German from Linfield College in 1975 and his M.A. in Mathematics from Arizona State University in 1977. He also studied one year at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Firesmith started working in the computer business as a software developer in 1979 and has been quality engineer, configuration manager, and data manager for Computer Science Corporation in the US, Germany, and Switzerland. From 1984 to 1988 he was an OO methodologist at Magnavox Electronic Systems Corporation. And from 1988 to 1995 he was President of Advanced Software Technology Specialists, a small consulting and training company. From 1994 to 1997 he has been an acquisition editor and editor and chief of Reference Books at SIGS Books. And further he was a Senior advisory software engineer at StorageTek, where he worked as a technical leader, requirements engineer, and software architect, Chief architect Lante Corporation, which specialized in producing eMarketplaces, and Chief architect for the North American Business Unit of Cambridge Technology Partners.

Since 2003 he is a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) where he works in the Acquisition Support Program helping the United States Government acquire software-intensive systems.^[1]

Work

Method Engineering (ME) and Open Process Environment and Notation (OPEN)

Firesmith is a co-founder with Brian Henderson-Sellers and Ian Graham of the international OPEN Consortium.^[2][3][4] Firesmith was the principal developer of the OPEN Modeling Language (OML).^[5] Firesmith is the founder of the The OPEN Process Framework Repository Organization and the developer of its large repository of free, open-source, reusable method components.^[6]

The OPEN approach to software development is founded on situational method engineering (SME). This is a means by which a software development team can construct a method and process that is appropriate for their own particular situation or circumstances.^[7][8][9] Fragments of methods, conformant with an international software engineering metamodel^[10] standard such as ISO/IEC 24744 and stored in a repository, are individually selected and the method composed from these method fragments. The SME approach is based on research by many groups worldwide – results from a recent conference are published.^[11]

Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures (MFESA)

Firesmith is the primary developer of the Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures (MFESA).^[12][13] This framework consists of the following:

• Ontology defining the key concepts of system architecture engineering and their relationships
• Metamodel defining the foundational abstract supertypes of method components for engineering system architectures including architectural:
  • Work products including architectures and architectural representations such as models and documents
  • Work units including activities, tasks, and techniques for producing the work products
  • Producers including architects, architecture teams, and architecture tools that perform the work units to produce the work products
• Repository of free, open-source, reusable method components for creating situation-specific system architecture engineering methods
• Metamethod for creating situation-specific system architecture engineering methods by selecting appropriate method components from the repository, tailoring them as appropriate, and integrating them to form the new architecture engineering method

Publications

He is the author of several technical books in system and software engineering as well as numerous technical articles, conference papers, and tutorials^[14] A selection:

• 1993. Object-Oriented Requirements Analysis and Logical Design: A Software Engineering Approach, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-57807-X
• 1995. The Dictionary of Object Technology: The Definitive Desk Reference, Cambridge University Books, ISBN 0-13-373887-6, with Edward M. Eykholt
• 1998. OPEN Modeling Language (OML) Reference Manual, Cambridge University Books, ISBN 1-884842-75-5, with Brian Henderson-Sellers and Ian Graham
• 1998. Documenting a Complete Java Application using OPEN, Addison-Wesley Longman, ISBN 0-201-34277-4, with Scott Krutsch, Marshall Stowe, and Greg Hendley
• 2001. The OPEN Process Framework, Addison-Wesley Longman, ISBN 0-201-67510-2, with Brian Henderson-Sellers
• 2008. The Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures, Auerbach Publication, ISBN 978-1-4200-8575-4, with Peter Capell, Dietrich Falkenthal, Charles B. Hammons, DeWitt T. Latimer IV, and Tom Merendino

References

1. ^ Staff page for Donald Firesmith on the SEI Website Retrieved 2009-09-23.
2. ^ What is OPEN? A brief description of the founding of the OPEN Consortium. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
3. ^ Brian Henderson-Sellers and Donald Firesmith, The OPEN Process Framework, Addison-Wesley Longman, ISBN 0-201-67510-2, 2001
4. ^ [1] The Open Alternative, Object Expert, Volume 2 part 1, pp 14–15, Nov/Dec 1996, SIGS Publications
5. ^ Donald Firesmith, Brian Henderson-Sellers and Ian Graham, OPEN Modeling Language (OML) Reference Manual, Cambridge University Books, ISBN 1-884842-75-5, 1998
6. ^ OPFRO Chair Retrieved 2009-09-24.
7. ^ Henderson-Sellers, B. and Serour, M.K., 2005, Creating a dual agility method – the value of method engineering, J. Database Management, 16(4), 1–24
8. ^ Henderson-Sellers, B. and Qumer, A., 2007, Using method engineering to make a traditional environment agile, Cutter IT Journal, 20(5), 30–37; Republished as Chapter 5 (pp. 61–74) in Fostering Innovation on the Agile Frontier, 2008, Cutter Consortium report, 140pp
9. ^ M. Bajec, D. Vavpotic and M. Krisper, 2007. Practice-driven approach for creating project-specific software development methods. Information and Software Technology 49, 345–365
10. ^ Gonzalez-Perez, C. and Henderson-Sellers, B., 2008, Metamodelling for Software Engineering, J. Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 210pp
11. ^ Ralyté, J.; Brinkkemper, S. and Henderson-Sellers, B. (eds.), 2007, Situational Method Engineering: Fundamentals and Experiences. Proceedings of the IFIP WG 8.1 Working Conference, 12–14 September 2007, Geneva, Switzerland, IFIP Series, Vol. 244, Springer, Berlin, 380pp
12. ^ Donald Firesmith with Peter Capell, Dietrich Falkenthal, Charles B. Hammons, DeWitt T. Latimer IV, and Tom Merendino, The Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures, Auerbach Publication, ISBN 978-1-4200-8575-4, 2008, pp. 51–61
13. ^ Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures (MFESA), tutorial at the 2009 System and Software Technology Conference (SSTC'2009), April 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
14. ^ List of publications from the DBLP Bibliography Server Retrieved 2009-09-23.

External links

• SEI Home Page of Donald Firesmith
• The OPEN Process Framework Repository Organization
• Firesmith's Personal Website with list of (and links to) his publications

Persondata
Name	Firesmith, Donald
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1952-06-14
Place of birth	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Date of death
Place of death