T.A.Stearns was a national tax accounting firm whose main business was its popular Tax preparation service for individuals. Stearms’s superior reputation was baswd on the high quality of its advice and the excellence of its service. Key to the achievement of its reputation were the superior computer databases and analysis tools its agents used went counseling clients. These programs were developed by highly trained individuals,usually tawyers and tax accountants who had picked up programming skills on the side.
The programs that these individuals produced were highly technical both in terms of the tax laws they covered and the code in which they were written. Perfecting them required high levels of programming skill as well as the ability to understand the law. New laws and interpretations of existing laws had to be integrated quickly and flawlessly into the existing regulations and analysis tools.
The work was carried out in a virtual environment by four programmers in the greater Boston area. Four work sites were connected to each other and the company by e.mail,telephone, and conferencing softwere. Formal meeting among all of the programmers took place only a few times a year,although the workers sometimes met informally outside of these scheduled occasions.
The following paragraphs the members of the virtual eork term.
Tom Andrews was a tax lawyer, a graduate of State University and a former hockey player there. By the age of 35,Tom had worked on the programs for six years and was the longest-standing member of the group. Along with his design responsibilities, Tom was the primary liaison with Stearns. He was also responsible for traning new group members. Single,he worked out of his farm in southern New Hampshire where in his spare time he enjoyed hunting and fishing.