- ThoughtWorks
Infobox_Company
company_name = ThoughtWorks Inc.
company_type = Private
foundation = 1993
company_
key_people =Neville Roy Singham , ChairmanTrevor Mather , CEOGraham Webster , CFOMartin Fowler , Chief Scientist
industry = IT Consulting
Management Consulting
num_employees = 1000 (Jul 2008)
location = Chicago,USA
homepage = [http://www.thoughtworks.com www.thoughtworks.com]
products = [http://studios.thoughtworks.com studios.thoughtworks.com]ThoughtWorks is a global IT
consultancy which focuses onAgile software development . The company has contributed a range of open source products, includingCruiseControl , NUnit 2.0, and Selenium.Fact|date=June 2008History
In 1992,
Neville Roy Singham , a former activistFact|date=February 2008, founded Singham Business Services as a management consulting company servicing the equipment leasing industry.In 1995, after three years of helping businesses use software, Singham changed the company's name to ThoughtWorks, and the focus became building software. Singham has described the change as:
"We grew to eight people, mostly MBA types. We then realized we had to recruit some top techie weenies, because we needed people who could write coherent code." [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20031023/ai_n12525126] ,"Chicago Sun-Times" (Chicago), October 23, 2003.]
ThoughtWorks' technology capabilities have evolved from its use of
Forte 4GL in the mid-1990s to include Java in the late 1990s, the.NET Framework in 2001, and Ruby in 2004.Fact|date=June 2008The services have expanded beyond software development and into areas such as the organizational transformation of business. The company prefers to use Agile methodologies, as well as the languages Ruby, C#, and Java.Fact|date=June 2008
In early 2007, ThoughtWorks announced the launch of ThoughtWorks Studios, its software development division. The first product to be released by ThoughtWorks Studios is Mingle, an Agile project management application. [http://studios.thoughtworks.com ThoughtWorks Studios – Mingle (Agile Project Management + Team Collaboration), Cruise (Continuous Integration), Twist (Testing) ] ]
On
2 March 2007 , ThoughtWorks announced Trevor Mather as the new CEO. [ [http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070301005123&newsLang=en] , "Business Wire", March 2, 2007.]On
15 March 2007 , ThoughtWorks announced a software development division, ThoughtWorks Studios.Open Source Contributions
*
CruiseControl [ [http://cruisecontrol.sourceforge.net/ CruiseControl Home ] ] - Java-based framework for a continuous build process. Often considered the de facto standard for continuous integration, but now with many easy to use competitors. [ [http://damagecontrol.codehaus.org/Continuous+Integration+Server+Feature+Matrix] , Continuous Integration Server Feature Comparison Matrix]
*CruiseControl.NET [ [http://ccnet.thoughtworks.com/ Welcome to CruiseControl.NET - CruiseControl.NET - Confluence ] ] - aContinuous Integration server for theMicrosoft .NET platform.
*CruiseControl.rb [ [http://cruisecontrolrb.thoughtworks.com/ CruiseControl.rb ] ] - CruiseControl for Ruby
* DamageControl [http://opensource.thoughtworks.com/projects/damagecontrol.jsp] - aContinuous Integration server for Ruby. Not actively used, more of a testing ground for technologies than a product.
* Frankenstein [ [http://www.openqa.org/frankenstein/ Frankenstein: About ] ] - Java SWING testing framework
*NUnit - unit testing framework for all .NET languages
* Selenium - testing tool for web applications
*Sahi [ [http://sahi.co.in/ Sahi ] ] - testing tool for web applications
*JBehave - Behaviour Driven Development testing framework
*Buildix - bootable CD with Subversion, Trac and CruiseControl
*SharpRobo - testing tool for .NET applicationsThoughtWorks Locations
ThoughtWorks has offices in Bangalore, Beijing, Calgary, Chennai, Chicago,
London ,Manchester ,Melbourne ,New York City , Pune, San Francisco,Sydney ,Toronto ,Stockholm , andXi'an . [ [http://www.thoughtworks.com/homepage/contact-us.html Contact Us - ThoughtWorks ] ]Controversies
ThoughtWorks claims to be a big supporter of open source but generally does not give their consultants paid time to work on open source projects, although the company does allow them do so when not working on client projects. Sometimes, ThoughtWorks consultants will only briefly work on an open source project, such as QuickFix, although they often write almost the entire application (e.g., the original CruiseControl). With the start of ThoughtWorks Studios, the company has also started producing closed source
proprietary software .ThoughtWorks has been quick to adopt new technologies, but has also been just as quick to remove the less popular ones from the company's history. For example, in 2004 Python was thought to be the next big innovation, and ThoughtWorks undertook a few Python projects on behalf of their clients.
ThoughtWorks is currently in a legal battle with SV Investment Partners (SVIP). [http://courts.delaware.gov/opinions/(5iwbml55qliqzireoy5eoe45)/download.aspx?ID=79250 "ThoughtWorks vs SCHRODER" (Delaware) 2006] In 2000, SVIP invested approximately US$26.6 million in ThoughtWorks. SVIP invested in Thoughtworks in large part because it was attracted to the possibility of an IPO in the near term. Both parties believed that ThoughtWorks would in the next few years undertake an initial public offering that would allow SVIP to cash out its investment. To guard against the possibility that such a transaction would not occur, the parties negotiated a provision in the ThoughtWorks corporate charter for the mandatory redemption of SVIP’s preferred stock after five years. In effect, on
5 April 2005 , five years from the closing date, SVIP claims they should have had a right to put (i.e., have the company redeem) all of its preferred shares for approximately US$43 million.On July 28,2008, ThoughtWorks released a commercial product continuous integration server called Cruise. Despite the name, this is not a derivative of the open source CruiseControl, but instead a new product written from scratch, which is due to be released under a commercial license. [ [http://studios.thoughtworks.com/cruise Cruise - Continuous Integration and Release Management System - From the Creators of CruiseControl ] ]
Timeline
* 1992: Singham Business Services founded
* 1995: ThoughtWorks comes into existence in Chicago, after Singham Business Services changed its business model, goals and name.
* 1998: ThoughtWorks begins opening international offices (starting with Brisbane, Australia)
* 1999:Extreme Programming becomes the preferred methodology.
* 1999: Software Watchdog Collects $480,000 for claims relating to unlicensed copies of software programs. [ [http://w3.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases/BSA-Collects-from-Chicago-Consulting-Company.cfm] , "Business Software Alliance"]
* 2000: ThoughtWorks receives $25 million private equity investment from Schroder Venture Partners LLC.
* 2001: ThoughtWorks opens an office in Calgary, Canada resulting from the acquisition of Servidium Inc. [ [http://www.canadait.com/cfm/index.cfm?It=102&Id=1338&Se=2&Lo=2] , "CanadaIT.com" Company Profiles] [ [http://www.vencom.ca/consulting.html] , "Vencom.ca" General Consulting Activities] [ [http://www.canadait.com/cfm/index.cfm?It=106&Id=8180&Se=358&Sv=&Lo=442] , "CanadaIT.com", "ThoughtWorks(R), Inc. To Acquire Calgary Firm Servidium(TM) Inc." September 20, 2001.]
* 2002: ThoughtWorks opens an office in Bangalore, India and London, UK
* 2005: ThoughtWorks University comes into existence
* 2005: ThoughtWorks opens an office in Xi'an, China
* 2005: ThoughtWorks opens an office in Toronto, Canada
* 2006: ThoughtWorks opens an office in Beijing, China
* 2006: ThoughtWorks opens an office in Pune, India
* 2006: Principal investor (SVIP) sues ThoughtWorks; Delware court finds for SVIP and orders ThoughtWorks to redeem preferred stock. [ [http://courts.delaware.gov/opinions/(5iwbml55qliqzireoy5eoe45)/download.aspx?ID=79250] ]
* 2007: ThoughtWorks starts the product division ThoughtWorks Studios.
* 2008: ThoughtWorks opens an office in Chennai, India
* 2008: ThoughtWorks opens an office in Stockholm, SwedenReferences
External links
* [http://www.thoughtworks.com/ ThoughtWorks.com Official Website]
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