Profile, John Moss Samford – “Paired Programming”

The Ann Arbor News - November 17, 2004

John Samford's profile was featured in today's The Ann Arbor News column on page-E12. The column features the profile of the Ann Arbor resident John Moss Samford, who currently works for Menlo Innovations. John talks about courses he takes at Washtenaw Community College (WCC) and of his work experience at Menlo Innovations.

Samford, who had previously worked as a software engineer and instructor, like many others was out of job in the post 9/11 world. He ran across Rich Sheridan, co-founder of Menlo Innovations, to whom Samford had taught a software engineering course years earlier. Sheridan invited him to the Ann Arbor based business, which designs and develops software and creates prototypes for clients. Samford was soon working in Menlo's Software Factory.

Samford says in his profile, that he enjoys his work at Menlo Innovations, which follows the extreme programming method - paired programming in an open, collaborative, team environment. Samford talks about a special approach Menlo uses called "high-tech anthropology®", placing scouts in clients businesses to shadow the staff, observing their tasks and needs. The anthropologists and clients then write "stories" to develop useful software, giving pairs of developers like Samford the task of testing and writing application code.

In the profile Samford  talks about how he likes to take courses at WCC (twelve classes so far) and how he enjoys the nature of his job, working from project to project, and the learning it provides for him.

Menlo Innovations LLC (c) 2006