David A. Wheeler

I'm a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in the Computer and Software Engineering Division (CSED).

My professional interests are in improving software development practices for higher-risk (large and safety-critical) software systems. This includes software risk assessment, process improvement, inspections, object-oriented (OO) approaches, defect detection and prevention techniques, software engineering tools and environments, the Internet, POSIX, Ada, C++, and Java.

My personal interests (besides computing) include chess, American sign language, downhill skiing, science fiction (including Star Trek), and music (I play the guitar, piano/keyboard, euphonium, tuba, and I sing bass). I'm an Eagle scout. Most important to me, I'm a Christian.

Pictures of me, large and small, are available.

Here's how to contact me:

David A. Wheeler
Institute for Defense Analyses/CSED
1801 N. Beauregard St.
Alexandria, VA 22311-1772 (USA)
Phone: (703) 845-6662; FAX (703) 845-6848
Email: dwheeler@ida.org

Employment (Abbreviated)

• 1987-present, IDA/CSED, Research Staff Member.

  Led and contributed to various teams to evaluate important software development projects, products, and techniques. These include the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), Patriot PAC-3, BSY-2, Internet technology (including its application to software development), software engineering environments (SEEs), CASE tools, and inspections. Provided recommendations based on these evaluations to various sponsors. Led and substantially contributed to development of software in various languages, including a five-person team that generated simulations from specifications. Developed and applied techniques for identifying software development risks and software safety issues.

• 1985-present, PSE (Computer Consulting Firm), Owner.

  Developed software in various languages, and solved diverse kinds of computer-related problems.

• 1982-1984, Computer Sales & Service.

If you're interested, a more detailed version of my professional history is available.

Education

• George Mason University, M.S., Computer Science, 1993.
• George Mason University, Certificate in Software Systems Engineering, 1993.
• Software Engineering Institute, Software Capability Evaluation Training, 1993, 1994.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, `Design and Analysis of Distributed Protocols' (Summer Session), 1994.
• George Mason University, B.S., Electronics Engineering, 1987.

Professional Activities

• Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
• Member, IEEE Computer Society.
• Member, IEEE Computer Society Committee on the Engineering of Complex Computer Systems.
• Member, IEEE Standard 1028 Working Group (completed).
• Volunteer Reviewer, Ada 9X (completed).

Honors

• Computer Science Graduate Honor Roll Award.
• Graduation with Distinction.
• Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society.
• George Washington University Engineering Award.
• Eagle Scout Award.
• Ada Lovelace Programming Contest Award (December 1995).

Publications

Most of my work is not available on the Internet at this time. A list of my publications is available.

I'm an author and editor of Software Inspection: An Industry Best Practice by David A. Wheeler, Bill Brykczynski, and Reg Meeson. This book, published by the IEEE Computer Society Press, describes the software inspection process and includes a number of papers on the topic, including results from many different users of the process. This book is listed in the "Best Sellers" category in the IEEE Computer Society "New Releases" Fall 1996 catalog. It is ISBN 0-8186-7340-0, IEEE Catalog Number BP07340, and Library of Congress Number 95-41054. You can order this book from the IEEE by emailing to cs.books@computer.org, calling U.S. (714) 821-8380, or faxing to U.S. (714) 821-4641. You can find more information about the book from the IEEE.

Items I've developed that are available on the Internet are generally Ada-related or WWW-related, including:

• Lovelace (a free Ada 95 tutorial),
• Mklesson (a free WWW tutorial generator),
• Package CGI (an Ada 95 binding to a WWW server),
• Program Small (a demo Ada 95 program)
• Ada2html (a tool that transforms Ada 95 source code into HTML documents).

Warning

There's another person on the Internet named David Weller who's also involved with Ada and plays the guitar; he's responsible for the Ada 95 Booch components. We're not the same person! "David Wheeler" is a somewhat common name anyway, so I always use my middle initial (A.) in widely-distributed material in an effort to reduce confusion.

From here you may see:

1. a list of my publications
2. a more detailed version of my professional history
3. my Lovelace tutorial
4. information about my upcoming book Ada 95: The Lovelace Tutorial
5. information about Software Inspection: An Industry Best Practice

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