ThoughtWorks
Encyclopedia
ThoughtWorks is a privately owned global IT
consultancy that delivers custom software, software tools, consulting, and transformation services to Global 1000 companies. It has a products division, ThoughtWorks Studios
, which creates and markets software development and project management applications. The company is closely associated with the movement for agile methods of software development (see Agile software development
).
ThoughtWorks describes itself as “…A social and commercial community whose purpose is to revolutionize software creation and delivery while advocating for positive social change in the world.” Founder and Chairman Roy Singham has said “I believe the world should have access to the best ideas in software for free. My goal is a technically-superior infrastructure to solve the world's problems." The company has contributed to a range of open source products.
As of June 2011 the company had 1700 employees, with 22 offices in 8 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, England, and the United States.
In 1993 the company was incorporated and the name changed to ThoughtWorks. The focus became building software applications.
ThoughtWorks' technology capabilities have evolved from its use of C++ and Forte 4GL
in the mid-1990s to include Java
in the late 1990s.
The company began using agile techniques while working on a leasing project Martin Fowler
began working with ThoughtWorks in 1999 and was hired in 2000 as Chief Scientist. In 2000 Martin Fowler and Matthew Foemmel first described the use of the technique of Continuous Integration for large-scale software projects. This resulted in the Open Source project CruiseControl
created by ThoughtWorks as the first continuous integration server.
The Agile Manifesto was published in 2001, with Chief Scientist Martin Fowler
one of the co-authors. This document propounded the core principles that are the basis for agile software development
.
ThoughtWorks’ technical expertise expanded with the .NET Framework
in 2002, C# in 2004, Ruby
and the Rails
platform in 2006.
ThoughtWorks Studios
was launched as its product division in 2006. The division creates, supports and sells agile project management and software development and deployment tools including Mingle
, Twist
and Go
.
On 2 March 2007, ThoughtWorks announced Trevor Mather as the new CEO.
ThoughtWorks initiated a Social Impact Program in 2009.
Continuous Delivery aims to make software production-ready throughout its lifecycle, so that potentially every good build can be released into production and run effectively. The goal is to “…Minimise the cycle time from idea to delivery, and allow that cycle to be repeated frequently and reliably.”
, the company’s leadership is distributed. Central functions are chiefly performed in Chicago, London
and Bangalore
.
ThoughtWorks grew and established its first regional office, in San Francisco, in 1997.
The company opened its first office outside the US, in Brisbane
, Australia, in 2000. The company continued expanding with new offices opened in Canada
, London, and Bangalore in 2001.
China
operations were launched in 2005, followed by offices in Pune
in 2006 and Chennai
in 2007. Latin American operations were launched in 2009 with the firm's first office in Brazil, in Porto Alegre
.
Operations further expanded in India with an office in Gurgaon
and a second office in Bangalore in 2010. An office in Germany, situated in Hamburg
, also was opened in 2010.
The three are examined and elaborated upon by ThoughtWorks’ founder, Roy Singham in an interview with The Economic Times and in an essay by the firm’s Chief Scientist Martin Fowler
.
The firm also has a special staff resourcing model and tools that allow employees to contribute non-billable time and volunteer time to social impact projects. Examples of work include the OpenMRS
project, CycleTelTM and an emergency online donation system to help flood victims in Australia.
The company develops and supports Open Source
projects. Employees are encouraged to contribute to Open Source Software projects, and the firm often advocates Open Source Software for use in corporate enterprise IT.
With the start of ThoughtWorks Studios
, the company has also started producing closed source proprietary software
.
On July 10, 2010, ThoughtWorks Studios released a new agile release management platform called Go. Go (release management). Go includes the functionality of Cruise, which is no longer sold.
is software to facilitate agile project management and collaboration, built by ThoughtWorks Studios
. Released in May 2007, Mingle was the first commercial application to be created using JRuby
.
is software to facilitate the process of agile testing, built by ThoughtWorks Studios
.
it was attracted to the possibility of an IPO in the near term. Both parties believed that ThoughtWorks would in the next few years undertake an initial public offering that would allow SVIP to cash out its investment. To guard against the possibility that such a transaction would not occur, the parties negotiated a provision in the ThoughtWorks corporate charter for the mandatory redemption of SVIP’s preferred stock after five years. In effect, on 5 April 2005, five years from the closing date, SVIP claims they should have had a right to put (i.e., have the company redeem) all of its preferred shares for approximately US$43 million.
This case was decided in 2006. The company then began a process to redeem preferred shares on a quarterly basis with what it determined to be the legally available funds for redemption. In 2007 SVIP initiated another suit to force the company to redeem all its shares at once.
In 2010 the Delaware court ruled in ThoughtWorks’ favor, and SVIP is appealing the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court.
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
consultancy that delivers custom software, software tools, consulting, and transformation services to Global 1000 companies. It has a products division, ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios is the software division of ThoughtWorks, an IT consultancy. It creates software development tools for project teams. ThoughtWorks Studios' products include Mingle for Agile project management, Go for Agile release management and Twist for Agile testing.-History:ThoughtWorks...
, which creates and markets software development and project management applications. The company is closely associated with the movement for agile methods of software development (see Agile software development
Agile software development
Agile software development is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams...
).
ThoughtWorks describes itself as “…A social and commercial community whose purpose is to revolutionize software creation and delivery while advocating for positive social change in the world.” Founder and Chairman Roy Singham has said “I believe the world should have access to the best ideas in software for free. My goal is a technically-superior infrastructure to solve the world's problems." The company has contributed to a range of open source products.
As of June 2011 the company had 1700 employees, with 22 offices in 8 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, England, and the United States.
History
In the late 1980s Roy Singham founded Singham Business Services as a management consulting company servicing the equipment leasing industry in a Chicago basement.In 1993 the company was incorporated and the name changed to ThoughtWorks. The focus became building software applications.
ThoughtWorks' technology capabilities have evolved from its use of C++ and Forte 4GL
Forte 4GL
Forté 4GL is a proprietary application server used for developing scalable, highly-available, enterprise applications.- History :Forté 4GL was created as an integrated solution for developing and managing client/server applications...
in the mid-1990s to include Java
Java (Sun)
Java refers to several computer software products and specifications from Sun Microsystems, a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation, that together provide a system for developing application software and deploying it in a cross-platform environment...
in the late 1990s.
The company began using agile techniques while working on a leasing project Martin Fowler
Martin Fowler
-Online presentations:* at RailsConf 2006* at JAOO 2006* at QCon London 2007 * at QCon London 2008 * at ThoughtWorks Quarterly Technology Briefing, October 2008...
began working with ThoughtWorks in 1999 and was hired in 2000 as Chief Scientist. In 2000 Martin Fowler and Matthew Foemmel first described the use of the technique of Continuous Integration for large-scale software projects. This resulted in the Open Source project CruiseControl
CruiseControl
In software development, CruiseControl is a Java-based framework for a continuous build process. It includes, but is not limited to, plugins for email notification, Ant, and various source control tools. A web interface is provided to view the details of the current and previous builds...
created by ThoughtWorks as the first continuous integration server.
The Agile Manifesto was published in 2001, with Chief Scientist Martin Fowler
Martin Fowler
-Online presentations:* at RailsConf 2006* at JAOO 2006* at QCon London 2007 * at QCon London 2008 * at ThoughtWorks Quarterly Technology Briefing, October 2008...
one of the co-authors. This document propounded the core principles that are the basis for agile software development
Agile software development
Agile software development is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams...
.
ThoughtWorks’ technical expertise expanded with the .NET Framework
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
in 2002, C# in 2004, Ruby
Ruby (programming language)
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
and the Rails
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
platform in 2006.
ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios is the software division of ThoughtWorks, an IT consultancy. It creates software development tools for project teams. ThoughtWorks Studios' products include Mingle for Agile project management, Go for Agile release management and Twist for Agile testing.-History:ThoughtWorks...
was launched as its product division in 2006. The division creates, supports and sells agile project management and software development and deployment tools including Mingle
Mingle
Mingle is a proprietary project management and collaboration platform that is built by ThoughtWorks Studios, the software division of ThoughtWorks.Mingle was introduced at JavaOne in 2007 as the first commercial application that runs on JRuby...
, Twist
Twist (software)
Twist is a test automation and functional testing solution built by Thoughtworks Studios, the software division of ThoughtWorks. It uses Behavior Driven Development and Test-driven development for functional testing of the application...
and Go
Go (software)
Go is a proprietary continuous integration and release management product by ThoughtWorks Studios. It is a part of the Adaptive ALM solution by ThoughtWorks Studios- History:...
.
On 2 March 2007, ThoughtWorks announced Trevor Mather as the new CEO.
ThoughtWorks initiated a Social Impact Program in 2009.
Continuous Delivery
The company is now working with a software practice known as Continuous Delivery.Continuous Delivery aims to make software production-ready throughout its lifecycle, so that potentially every good build can be released into production and run effectively. The goal is to “…Minimise the cycle time from idea to delivery, and allow that cycle to be repeated frequently and reliably.”
Services
The company’s primary service is the creation of large-scale mission-critical custom software applications for global corporate clients. Projects for North American, European or Australian clients are often delivered from India, China or Brazil, in accordance with client financial and resource constraints. The firm also provides consulting services related to software development, design, architecture, operations, and IT Transformation among others.Expansion
Founded and still headquartered in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, the company’s leadership is distributed. Central functions are chiefly performed in Chicago, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
.
ThoughtWorks grew and established its first regional office, in San Francisco, in 1997.
The company opened its first office outside the US, in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Australia, in 2000. The company continued expanding with new offices opened in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, London, and Bangalore in 2001.
China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
operations were launched in 2005, followed by offices in Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
in 2006 and Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
in 2007. Latin American operations were launched in 2009 with the firm's first office in Brazil, in Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
.
Operations further expanded in India with an office in Gurgaon
Gurgaon
Gurgaon is the second largest city in the Indian state of Haryana. Gurgaon is the industrial and financial center of Haryana. It is located 30 km south of national capital New Delhi, about 10 kilometers from Dwarka Sub City and 268 km south of Chandigarh, the state capital...
and a second office in Bangalore in 2010. An office in Germany, situated in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, also was opened in 2010.
Three pillars
The firm designates its core organization values as the Three Pillars:- Sustainable Business
- Champion Software Excellence
- Social Justice
The three are examined and elaborated upon by ThoughtWorks’ founder, Roy Singham in an interview with The Economic Times and in an essay by the firm’s Chief Scientist Martin Fowler
Martin Fowler
-Online presentations:* at RailsConf 2006* at JAOO 2006* at QCon London 2007 * at QCon London 2008 * at ThoughtWorks Quarterly Technology Briefing, October 2008...
.
Social Impact Program
To support the firm’s core values, the company established a Social Impact Program that builds partnerships with social mission organizations that need help with technology.The firm also has a special staff resourcing model and tools that allow employees to contribute non-billable time and volunteer time to social impact projects. Examples of work include the OpenMRS
OpenMRS
is a collaborative open source project to develop excellent software to support the delivery of health care in developing countries. It grew out of the critical need to scale up the treatment of HIV in Africa but from the start was conceived as a general purpose electronic medical record system...
project, CycleTelTM and an emergency online donation system to help flood victims in Australia.
Open Source Contributions
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
projects. Employees are encouraged to contribute to Open Source Software projects, and the firm often advocates Open Source Software for use in corporate enterprise IT.
- CruiseControlCruiseControlIn software development, CruiseControl is a Java-based framework for a continuous build process. It includes, but is not limited to, plugins for email notification, Ant, and various source control tools. A web interface is provided to view the details of the current and previous builds...
- JavaJava (programming language)Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
-based framework for a continuous build process. Often considered the de facto standard for continuous integration, but now with many competitors. - CruiseControl.NET - a Continuous IntegrationContinuous integrationIn software engineering, continuous integration implements continuous processes of applying quality control — small pieces of effort, applied frequently...
server for the Microsoft .NET platform. - CruiseControl.rbCruiseControl.rbIn software development, CruiseControl.rb is a Ruby-based framework for a continuous build process. It allows one to perform a continuous integration of a codebase in any language and on any platform....
- CruiseControl for Ruby - DamageControl - a Continuous IntegrationContinuous integrationIn software engineering, continuous integration implements continuous processes of applying quality control — small pieces of effort, applied frequently...
server for Ruby. Not actively used, more of a testing ground for technologies than a product. - Frankenstein - Java SWING testing framework
- NUnitNUnitNUnit is an open source unit testing framework for Microsoft .NET. It serves the same purpose as JUnit does in the Java world, and is one of many in the xUnit family.- Example :Example of an NUnit test fixture:using NUnit.Framework; [TestFixture]...
- unit testing framework for all .NET languages - SeleniumSelenium (software)Selenium is a portable software testing framework for web applications. Selenium provides a record/playback tool for authoring tests without learning a test scripting language . It also provides a test domain-specific language to write tests in a number of popular programming languages, including...
- testing tool for web applications - Sahi - testing tool for web applications
- JBehave - Behaviour Driven Development testing framework
- BuildixBuildixBuildix is an operating system which can be used as a Live CD. It is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, developed by Global IT professional services firm, ThoughtWorks....
- bootable CD with Subversion, Trac and CruiseControl - SharpRobo - testing tool for .NET applications
- BelenixBeleniXBeleniX is an operating system distribution built using the OpenSolaris source base. It can be used as a Live CD as well as installed to hard disk. From the information provided on the BeleniX website, it may appear that currently, BeleniX is compiled only for 32-bit execution...
- a distro based on the Opensolaris source code base.
With the start of ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios is the software division of ThoughtWorks, an IT consultancy. It creates software development tools for project teams. ThoughtWorks Studios' products include Mingle for Agile project management, Go for Agile release management and Twist for Agile testing.-History:ThoughtWorks...
, the company has also started producing closed source proprietary software
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
.
Cruise / Go
On July 28, 2008, ThoughtWorks Studios released a proprietary product continuous integration server called Cruise. Despite the name, this is not a derivative of the open source CruiseControl, but instead a new product written from scratch, which is due to be released under a proprietary license.On July 10, 2010, ThoughtWorks Studios released a new agile release management platform called Go. Go (release management). Go includes the functionality of Cruise, which is no longer sold.
Mingle
MingleMingle
Mingle is a proprietary project management and collaboration platform that is built by ThoughtWorks Studios, the software division of ThoughtWorks.Mingle was introduced at JavaOne in 2007 as the first commercial application that runs on JRuby...
is software to facilitate agile project management and collaboration, built by ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios is the software division of ThoughtWorks, an IT consultancy. It creates software development tools for project teams. ThoughtWorks Studios' products include Mingle for Agile project management, Go for Agile release management and Twist for Agile testing.-History:ThoughtWorks...
. Released in May 2007, Mingle was the first commercial application to be created using JRuby
JRuby
JRuby is a Java implementation of the Ruby programming language, being developed by the JRuby team. It is free software released under a three-way CPL/GPL/LGPL license...
.
Twist
TwistTwist
Twist may refer to:* Twist , a decorative piece of citrus zest* Twist , a comic by John Cook* Twist in screw theory in applied mathematics and physics* Twist , an American teen magazine...
is software to facilitate the process of agile testing, built by ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios
ThoughtWorks Studios is the software division of ThoughtWorks, an IT consultancy. It creates software development tools for project teams. ThoughtWorks Studios' products include Mingle for Agile project management, Go for Agile release management and Twist for Agile testing.-History:ThoughtWorks...
.
Controversies
ThoughtWorks is currently in a legal battle with SV Investment Partners (SVIP). In 2000, SVIP invested approximately US$26.6 million in ThoughtWorks. SVIP invested in Thoughtworks in large part becauseit was attracted to the possibility of an IPO in the near term. Both parties believed that ThoughtWorks would in the next few years undertake an initial public offering that would allow SVIP to cash out its investment. To guard against the possibility that such a transaction would not occur, the parties negotiated a provision in the ThoughtWorks corporate charter for the mandatory redemption of SVIP’s preferred stock after five years. In effect, on 5 April 2005, five years from the closing date, SVIP claims they should have had a right to put (i.e., have the company redeem) all of its preferred shares for approximately US$43 million.
This case was decided in 2006. The company then began a process to redeem preferred shares on a quarterly basis with what it determined to be the legally available funds for redemption. In 2007 SVIP initiated another suit to force the company to redeem all its shares at once.
In 2010 the Delaware court ruled in ThoughtWorks’ favor, and SVIP is appealing the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court.