Joseph William Yoder - Software Architect, Developer, Entrepreneur

Joe is a founder and principal of The Refactory, Inc., he runs his own consulting and mentoring business, and also volunteers for The Hillside Group.

Joseph is an international speaker, pattern author, and longstanding member of The Hillside Group where he currently serves as the President of the Hillside Board, a group dedicated to improving the quality of software development. He is co-author of the Big Ball of Mud pattern, which illuminates many fallacies in the approach to software architecture. Joseph has chaired the Pattern Languages of Programming Conference (PLoP), given a keynote address at Agile Portugal, helped organize SugarLoaf PLoP, ChiliPLoP, and PLoPs for many years, as well as presented tutorials and talks at conferences such as OOPSLA, Agile PT, SATURN, CBSoft, and ECOOP. He has also contributed with tracks at QCon San Francisco, assisted the new AsianPLoP with their first conference, organized a web 2.0 workshop at the TOOLS conference in Europe, and presented papers and tutorials at many conferences around the world. >> Read More

Adaptive Object Model Researcher and Design Pattern Writer

Joe has been involved for quite some time working on and deploying Adaptive Systems or Domain-Specific Languages for clients. Joe thinks software is still too hard to change. He wants do something about this and believes that by using good patterns and by putting the ability to change software into the hands of the people with the domain knowledge seems to be some promising avenues to solve this problem. Joe has written papers, presentations, and tutorials on Adaptive Object-Models, meta modeling, frameworks, and has organized many workshops on this topic. Take a look at his research and papers to find out more about his studies and specialties. >> Read More

Joe currently resides in Urbana, Illiinois. He runs two companies, works on software development projects, authors pattern papers, and enjoys the day to day life of a traveler and consultant. Joe supports the local community through a portal site titled CU Local Biz.com. He enjoys riding his Harley, cycling Central Illinois trails, listening to a variety of music, and spending time with friends and family.

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2013 Travel Log

Allerton Park in Monticello, IL October 23-26, 2013

In October, PLoP 13, the 20th Pattern Language of Programs Conference will be returning to my neck of the woods. I am on the planning committee this year, filling the role of Director of Local Operations.

Geneva, Switzerland September 16-21, 2013

This September, I will be returning to Switzerland. This will be my first visit to Geneva, where I will be travelling to CERN to provide training in Refactoring and Test Driven Development.

Nashville, Tennessee August 5-9, 2013

In August, I will be attending the Agile 2013 conference in Nashville Tennessee. While at the event, I will be presenting a talk with Rebecca Wirfs-Brock entitled "Agile Quality Scenarios: How to Be Nimble and Precise."

Parque das Nações, Lisboa, Portugal June 18-25, 2013

I am looking forward to returning to Portugal for this year's Agile Portugal conference. This year it will be co-located with the Scrum Alliance conference. I will be presenting a keynote address entitled "Taming Big Balls of Mud with Diligence, Agile Practices, and Hard Work" and will be holding the workshop, "Agile Quality Scenarios: How to Be Nimble and Precise." I will be arriving in Porto on the 18th before travelling up to Lisbon on the 20th and will be returning to Porto on the 23rd before I fly home on the 25th. Get in touch if you will be at the event and would like to get together.

Chicago, Illinois April 23-24, 2013

I enjoyed attending the GOTO conference in Chicago and reconnecting with some old friends such as Dave Thomas, fellow Hillsider Linda Rising, and others. Getting to stay in the historic Drake Hotel wasn't too bad either!

2012 Travel Log

Gdańsk, Poland December 11-15, 2012

In what seemed like no time, I returned to Poland, but this time I was visiting Gdańsk. A client of mine had asked me to teach a course on Advanced Object Oriented Analysis and Design with Patterns.

Haifa, Israel November 8-15, 2012

I flew to Haifa, Israel, where I taught a Test-Driven Development (TDD) course for a client of mine. This was be my first trip to Israel, and I was excited about getting the opportunity to see some sites and try some of the local cuisine. I was also fortunate enough to be leaving the country as the aggression began on the Gaza Strip.

Kraków, Poland October 24-28, 2012

I was excited to head back to Kraków for JDD 2012. While at the Java developers conference, I presented a talk called "When Should You Consider Meta-Architectures? Using Meta to Scale the Cloud." I also spoke on the subject, "Pragmatic, Not Dogmatic TDD: Rethinking How We Test" with Rebecca Wirfs-Brock.

Tucson, Arizona October 18-22, 2012

I traveled to Tucson Arizona to attend the 19th Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs. While there, I will hosted a PLoP Bootcamp with Rebecca Wirfs-Brock. This year, I served on the Planning Committee and as Director of Local Operations for PLoP 2012, and also attended SPLASH while in Arizona.

São Paulo, Brazil October October 8-12, 2012

I returned to Sao Paolo to follow up with the client I consulted in September.

Joseph Yoder's Personal Pages

Travel Log