Meet Kenji Hiranabe

Kenji Hiranabe is the CTO of Change Vision, Inc. and the innovator and inspiration behind Astah.

I started this company in 2006

to develop and market Astah, a UML editor integrated with Mind Mapping features. My background is in software engineering, something I’ve been doing for more 20 years. For about half of that time I worked on practical applications for object-oriented technologies, the other half for Agile approaches in real world software development.

My Mission

Innovation is rarely the result of rigid thinking, but most software tools focus only on engineering – strict, formal, mechanical thought. Programmers grow are used to being bogged down in endless lines of code, but we thrive on inspiration. We need something more intuitive – something that will engage our logic, our imagination, and our urge to create as a team.

Tools available to software developers get the mechanical side right. But aren’t user-friendly, and fail to provide an environment to improvise and interact with coworkers. I wanted to change the way individuals and groups develop software. I wanted to provide a common forum that would make software design more productive, rich and fun.

See a few of his published books, presentations, and articles.