To:   Larry Constantine
From: Karl Lieberherr

Dear Larry:

Thank you for the article by James Emery in your Management Forum of
the April 98 issue of Software Development (Vol. 6, No. 4). 
The title: "Adaptive Software Development" caught my attention since I
teach a course which is broadcast nationally with a similar title:
"Adaptive Object-Oriented Software Development"
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/lieber/com3360.html.

Emery describes adaptive software development as an iterative process
where each iteration is manifested in a working prototype. He writes:

"Truely effective systems are rarely developed from a stable and comprehensive
up-front statement of requirements. Any system that meets real
organizational needs must have evolved through a series of changes.
It is far better to encourage and plan for these changes than it is to
view them as anomalies in an otherwise immaculate process."

A wonderful statement, indeed, and one which describes the motivation
behind our work. We go a step further and offer concrete help about
how to plan for change, both behavioral and structural.
Our approach is to untangle both designs and their implementations
so that information which is likely to be changed is localized at one place
rather than spread throughout a design or program.
We use traversal strategies to localize navigation intent, visitors
to localize task-specific information, coordinators to localize coordination
information etc.
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/research/demeter

When you come to Boston next time, we would like to have you for a talk.

Best regards,
-- Karl Lieberherr