Before that, he was a distinguished member of technical staff at Avaya Labs, where he developed communications software led software development teams. He has studied software development organizations extensively and is a co-author of Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development. He is the author of  numerous publications and book chapters on software patterns, effective organizations, and software testing. He is acknowledged as the world's leading expert on pattern shepherding and the pattern conference (PLoP) shepherding award is named after him.

Professor Harrison has a BS in Computer Science with High Honors and University Scholar Designation from Brigham Young University, an MS in Computer Science from Purdue University, and a PhD from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands (pending). He is a member of ACM, The Hillside Group Board of Directors, and Hillside Europe.