Applications of Computing in Industry : Lecture

Is designing software a thing of the past now we have automated developer testing? Can you build a naive solution backed by an extensive test suite and rely on the tests to keep you in employment? In this talk you will get not one but two views on this question.

Zohar is obsessive about user experience. He wants users to be excited about the product and to improve it by seeing how they use it. Sometimes that means putting a feature in front of the users before it has a lot of automated test coverage. But he's found that early feedback from real-world use and a fast turn-around of usability improvements result in products that make the users happy and the business money.

Nat is obsessive about quality. He's lazy and would rather the computer did boring work, like testing the system, so he can work on interesting stuff like design. That can mean a worrying time at the start of the project for all involved as the team build up the infrastructure they need to evolve the system rapidly and reliably. But he's found that high test coverage and code quality result in a steadily accelerating delivery rate that makes the users happy and the business money.

Zohar Melamed is a Director and technical lead within Credit Suisse's Equity Derivatives technology group. This 200-strong global team is responsible for all Front Office technology for the Equity Derivatives division. Zohar graduated with a MEng in Computer Science from Imperial College in 1996, and then worked for several years in the computer games industry. In the late nineties he joined BNP Paribas, and has been working in banking since. After enduring a difficult spell as an architect, Zohar recovered sufficiently to return to active code duties. A large troupe of agile minded developers has since joined Zohar in his quest to surprise business users by delivering working software, and they have performed admirably as a team in a number of world-leading banks.

Nat Pryce is a consultant to Credit Suisse, within Equity Derivatives technology. He is the author of 'Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests'. After completing his PhD at Imperial College, Nat Pryce joined a dot-com just in time to ride the bust. Since then he has worked as a programmer, architect, trainer, and consultant in a variety of industries, including sports reportage, marketing communications, retail, telecoms, and finance. He has also worked on academic research projects and does occasional university teaching. An early adopter of XP, he has written or contributed to several open source libraries and tools that support TDD and was one of the founding organizers of the London XP Day conference.

Magnus Falk is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse, and Chief Information Officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa, a region comprising over 2,000 IT staff. He is a member of the IT and EMEA management committees, and is responsible for executing the Bank's global IT strategies and co-ordinating resources and opportunities for IT across EMEA. This includes oversight of production, managing IT risk and business continuity, human capital management, and running a large and expanding campus recruitment program globally for IT. Prior to this Magnus held positions as Head of Equity Derivatives Support and Control, and Deputy Head of Product Control and Complex Product Support. Magnus joined Credit Suisse in September 1996 from Accenture, prior to which he served in the British Army, leaving as an Infantry Captain. Magnus holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from Imperial College.