About the Authors

Rick Mugridge has been involved in software development for many years. He is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University of Auckland, where he has taught agile software development to engineering students since 2001. He also researches and consults to the software industry on various topics, including agile software development, (story) test-driven development, automated testing, software tools, software architecture, and user interfaces.

Rick has applied Fit to defining business rules and testing in a wide range of areas. He developed the FitLibrary, which was released in February 2005. He runs his own consulting company, Rimu Research.

Ward Cunningham is an architect in Microsoft's patterns and practices group, where he focuses on social aspects of technical knowledge. He is a founder of Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc., and has served as Director of R&D at Wyatt Software and as Principle Engineer in the Tektronix Computer Research Laboratory. Ward is well known for his contributions to the developing practice of object-oriented programming, the variation called Extreme Programming, and the communities supported by his WikiWikiWeb. Ward hosts AgileManifesto.org. He is a founder of the Hillside Group and has served as the first program chair of the Pattern Languages of Programs conference, which it sponsors.