Tim Lister is a Principal of the Atlantic Systems Guild, Inc., based in the New York office. He divides his time between consulting, teaching, and writing. He focuses on project early activities, having become convinced that if you get the early activities right, you just might have a great project. If you muddle through the early activities, you will muddle all the way through the project. The early activities include, but are not limited to, project goals definition, project staffing, project estimating, requirements and constraints definition, requirements management, process selection, and product release strategy.

He consults on tailoring software development processes using software risk management techniques. He was a member of the famous Airlie Software Council, a group of industry consultants, advising the DoD on best practices for software development and acquisition. He has been a keynoter at two Agile Development Conferences. Tim has hosted several of the Cutter Summits, and he is a member of the Cutter Business Technology Council.

Tim is co-author with Tom DeMarco of Waltzing With Bears: Managing Software Project Risk[Dorset House, 2003]. Tim and Tom are also co-authors of Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, 3rd edition [Addison-Wesley, 2013]. Along with his five fellow Principals he co-authored Adrenalin Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior  [Dorset House 2007]

Tim Lister has over 40 years of professional software development experience. Before the formation of the Atlantic Systems Guild, he worked at Yourdon Inc. from 1975 to 1983. At Yourdon he was an Executive Vice President and Fellow, in charge of all instructor/consultants, the technical content of all courses, and the quality of all consultations. Tim Lister lives in Manhattan. He holds an A.B. from Brown University, and is a life member of the I.E.E.E., and a member of the A.C.M. He is a Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering by IREB. He also serves as a panelist for the American Arbitration Association, arbitrating disputes involving software and software services, and has served as an expert witness in litigation proceedings involving software problems.

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