About Earl

Earl Beede has been working in software development for many decades. Not quite back to punch card days, but he was familiar with them. Yep, that old. Earl has been with Construx since 2000 and is a Senior Fellow here. Earl applies all the things he has learned and seen as a manager, systems analyst, quality assurance representative, process architect, and consultant. He has designed and implemented improved software practices for companies in industries including telecom, computer hardware and software, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, oil and gas, retail, and many others. Prior to Construx, Earl was much younger but had worked his way into management. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Earl probably was better at the quality assurance and systems analyst work he did as an independent contributor in the U.S. Department of Defense, Boeing, and Verizon Wireless.

Earl’s higher education degree was at the University of Washington with follow-on studies in mechanical systems, electronics, and computer software courtesy of the U.S. Government. Earl continues to learn from his interactions with hundreds of Construx clients over those many years mentioned above. He briefly re-established and led the Seattle Area Process Improvement Network (SPIN) before deciding that was too close to management.

At Construx, Earl designs and leads seminars, and provides consulting services on agile practices, early work effort techniques, estimation, requirements, quality assurance, contract management, and software methods.

What Earl Says About Himself

Big Sleepy Thoughts—I like to ponder huge problems (Why are we here? How do we attain world peace? How do I keep people from allowing their dogs to use my yard as a toilet?). I lay awake at night getting every little detail just right, only to finally fall asleep and forget it all. This works out well since I get to solve the entire puzzle again the next night. Every now and then I switch to a not-so-important topic like how I would spend a big lottery ticket. Does my elementary school get an endowed swing?

Travel—In my little caravan/camper trailer. As a reformed tent camper, being off the ground, warm, and dry has excellent benefits that I highly recommend. However, don’t pick an RV that has more square feet than a Manhattan apartment. Even I don’t think you’re doing much to rough it anymore. I also enjoy the flying kind of travel for work. After developing deep vein thrombosis, I now only fly in large, comfy seats. Flying got a lot better after my near-death experience.

Family—I did participate in raising our three daughters to adulthood. I love the calls asking me how to build a firewall for their home network or can they use an extra license on the annual tax software. Unfortunately for my family, they are often called upon to listen to fragments of the big sleepy thoughts that actually make it to morning. “Last night, I was thinking…”

Holidays—What a great combination. Days off from work. Lots of tasty food and drink. More poor souls forced to listen to big sleepy thought fragments. I really look forward to when even a minor holiday rolls around. I created one for my family by using the feast day of the Venerable Bede as a Beede family feast day. Hey, the first Beede in American spelled it Bede, (his sons added the extra ‘e’ for reasons I will tell you over beer) so close enough for another party. Did I mention that somebody else does most of the cooking?