Cliff Berg
Founder and President of Assured By Design

My early work in IT focused on the development of compilers and language processing tools. In 1995 I founded Digital Focus⁴, which was one of the first companies to specialize in the use of Java to build scalable and reliable enterprise systems. My book High-Assurance Design (published by Addison Wesley) documents what I learned on these topics. Five years later Digital Focus was ranked the eighth fastest-growing company in the Washington DC metropolitan area based on five years of revenue growth. Digital Focus survived and prospered after the tech downturn has since been acquired by Command Information.

In 2000 Digital Focus was one of the first companies to pioneer the use of Agile methods for developing enterprise-class systems. Over the years I have worked hard to develop approaches that meld reliable software design practices with a variety of methodologies, from agile to RUP to waterfall, in a cost-effective manner. I was fortunate to be a member of the team that developed the ideas behind the feature-driven design approach, including Peter Coad¹, Jeff DeLuca², and David Anderson³ in Singapore during the 1997-1999 period (see photo below).

Today I consult in the areas of IT policies and methodologies, particuarly with respect to integrating these into system development lifecycle processes and implementing the necessary organizational change management. My most recent book, Value-Driven IT, aggregates what I have learned, and proposes some solutions to the problems of the separation between business and IT, and how to integrate governance with software development.

Prior books include Advanced Java Development For Enterprise Applications, published by Prentice Hall, which has been translated into Japanese, and was the very first book to cover Java enterprise application architecture issues in an in-depth manner; and the 800 page second edition, Advanced Java 2 Development For Enterprise Applications, published under Sun Microsystems' official Java Series. I have written approximately 30 articles in various magazines, and founded the Java Q&A Column in Dr. Dobbs Journal, which was the most popular Java technology column during the two years that I wrote the column.