Grant Rule

Grant Rule

We have recently lost a special and influential leader in the Software Metrics industry: Grant Rule.

Grant Rule was a unique and exceptional talent who was widely known in the Metrics Community. He read voraciously and was deeply knowledgeable about software engineering and always interested in the latest developments. He was associated with UKSMA from the early days, a member for several years of the IFPUG Counting Practices Committee and of the Editorial Board of ‘IEEE Software’, a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a fellow of the Royal Society for arts. He was a founder member of COSMIC, and a great contributor to the development and success of the method. In recent years he had become heavily involved in the Lean/Kanban and Agile communities.

Grant looked like he was made to sit astride a Harley-Davidson but he had nothing in common with a roughneck. He was a gentle and kind man. He never swore, which is remarkable in this macho age. He is the only person I know who began all his e-mails with ‘I trust all is well with you and yours’ – and he meant it! He wrote beautifully clear English and gave great presentations. Probably thousands of people have benefited from his insights over the years.

He was an authority on Roman history and for relaxation played and sang folk music with his family group, around local pubs and festivals. Being Grant he didn’t play just an ordinary guitar, he played the Appalachian dulcimer. He was very active in his local community and dabbled in archery. But he especially loved to go sailing in Devon. It is a terrible irony and so tragic that it was there he met his death.

We will miss him deeply and our thoughts go to his wife Sue and to his family.