Texas Instruments
In 1973, he joined Texas Instruments where he eventually became Chief Computer Scientist. In a nearly 20-year career at TI, Bate formed TI’s Advanced Software Technology Department and served in the Computer Science Research Department. Bate’s interest in process improvement started in the late 1970s when he was leading the Advanced Software Technology Department and was tasked to solve “the software problem.” This phrase was used in the defense industry to describe the problems that project managers would cite when trying to explain why their projects were over budget or late.
Working with Edith Martin, who was the deputy under secretary of defense for research and advanced technology, and Larry Druffel, who was then the director of computer systems and software in Martin’s office, Bate helped to organize a workshop that brought together 300 experts to study the issue. One of the results of that workshop was to validate the idea for the Software Engineering Institute. Druffel would later become SEI director. Bate retired from TI in 1991 as chief computer scientist and TI fellow.
Read more about this topic: Roger R. Bate
Famous quotes containing the words texas and/or instruments:
“Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.”
—Anonymous. Popular saying.
Dating from World War I—when it was used by U.S. soldiers—or before, the saying was associated with nightclub hostess Texas Quinan in the 1920s. It was the title of a song recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1927, and of a Cole Porter musical in 1929.
“The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it ... a State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes—will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)